News Archive 2010
News Archive 2010
These articles provide public health advocates and policymakers concise, up-to-date summaries of key legal developments affecting tobacco control in your communities.
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March 1, 2010
FDA Names Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee
The Food and Drug Administration has taken a critical step in implementing its new authority to regulate tobacco products by appointing a group of highly qualified scientists and health professionals to its Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. The panel appointed today includes some of the world’s foremost scientific authorities on tobacco products and marketing – experts who will provide advice, information and recommendations to the FDA on a wide range of tobacco-related issues.
Read the roster of the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee.
Read the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium’s factsheets about the federal regulation of tobacco.
February 24, 2010
Historic International Tobacco Treaty Now Five Years Old
On Feb. 26, the first global public health treaty – the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) – celebrates its fifth year, marking an important milestone in public health history. The FCTC has had a remarkable global impact to date, elevating the importance of tobacco control as a global health and political issue, stimulating policy change at the domestic level, and bringing new public and private resources into the field. To date, 168 out of 195 eligible countries have joined the treaty through ratification or accession, and more are set to join. The United States has yet to ratify this landmark treaty.
Read more about the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
February 23, 2010
U.S., Public Health Groups and Big Tobacco Ask Supreme Court to Review Racketeering Case
The U.S. government, six public health groups, and three cigarette manufacturers have separately petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review a racketeering verdict against major tobacco companies that was upheld by an appeals court last year. The health groups are intervenors in the case, making them formal parties to the lawsuit. The request for the high court to consider the case stems from a landmark ruling in 2006 in which the cigarette manufacturers were found guilty of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). In that ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler found that major cigarette manufacturers had violated civil racketeering laws, defrauded the American people by lying for decades about the health risks of smoking and aggressively marketed their deadly products to children. Judge Kessler ruled that the penalties she could impose on the tobacco companies were limited by a controversial appeals court ruling that restricted the remedies she could impose under the civil RICO law to “forward-looking” remedies aimed at future racketeering violations. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld Judge Kessler’s ruling on May 22, 2009.
In their petitions, both the government and the six public health group intervenors are asking the Supreme Court to overturn the part of the U.S. v. Philip Morris decision that restricted the penalties Judge Kessler could order. They argue that RICO is not limited to remedies to restrain future violations, but instead allows courts to fashion remedies that fully redress past violations, including through the disgorgement of billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains by the tobacco industry, as well as equitable remedies such as smoking cessation and public education programs. The tobacco companies (Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA unit, Lorillard Inc., and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco) are asking the Court to overturn the verdict. If the Supreme Court agrees to take this case, millions – even billions – of dollars in equitable penalties could be at stake.
Read the Department of Justice’s petition PDF, 142 Kb
Read the public health intervenors’ petition PDF, 143 Kb
Read Philip Morris’s petition PDF, 252 Kb
Public Health Law in the Trenches: United States v. Philip Morris
Presented by Sharon Eubanks
Friday, Feb. 19
Watch Sharon Eubanks, lead counsel representing the Department of Justice in the historic tobacco case, U.S. v. Philip Morris USA, et al, speak at William Mitchell College of Law as part of the Public Health Law Center’s series “Conversations in Public Health.”
February 18, 2010
Ground-breaking State Reports Rank Counties on Health Outcomes
A set of 50 state reports is now available online that for the first time rank counties within each state on overall health outcomes, as well as factors that affect health. These factors include adult smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty. The reports were prepared by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute.
Read County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health.
February 17, 2010
New Report Suggests Cigarette Tax Hikes Could Fill State Budget Gaps
According to a new report released by a coalition of public health organizations, cash-strapped states could raise more than $9 billion annually by increasing tobacco taxes by $1 a pack, while also reducing smoking and improving health. A national poll released with the report found that 67 percent of voters support a $1 tobacco tax increase, and prefer that tax over other revenue-raising options.
Read “Tobacco Taxes: A Win-Win-Win for Cash-Strapped States.”
Read related materials about tobacco taxation.
February 5, 2010
CDC Releases Report on State Preemption of Local Smoke-free Laws
Substantial progress has been made toward the nation’s 2010 health goal of eliminating the number of states that preempt local smoking restrictions, according to a recent CDC report. From December 31, 2004 to December 31, 2009, the number of states that preempt local smoking restrictions in government worksites, private-sector worksites, or restaurants decreased from 19 to 12. This reduction in the number of states that preempt local smoke-free laws will allow communities to pass and enforce local laws that establish a higher standard of health protection than that provided by state law.
February 3, 2010
FDA Appeals Electronic Cigarette Ruling
The Food and Drug Administration is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that the agency doesn’t have the authority to regulate electronic cigarettes. The FDA asked the federal appeals court in Washington to stay an order that prevented the agency from blocking electronic cigarettes from entering the country. In its appeal, the FDA said it does have authority to regulate some products containing nicotine as though they are drugs and devices, such as nicotine patches and nicotine lollipops.
Read more about the FDA’s appeal of the electronic cigarette ruling.
Read the decision in Smoking Everywhere, Inc. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, et al. PDF, 1.15 Mb
February 2, 2010
Where There’s No Smoke, Altria Hopes There’s Fire
Altria, home to Philip Morris and its popular Marlboro cigarette brand, and supporter of federal legislation regulating tobacco products, is arguing to the Food and Drug Administration that it should be allowed to market smokeless tobacco products (such as snuff and snus) as less harmful than cigarettes. A recent article in the New York Times provides an overview of the ongoing debate about smokeless tobacco, the role of Altria, and federal regulation of tobacco.
Read more about Altria and the regulation of smokeless tobacco products.
Read our overview of the federal legislation regulating tobacco products.
January 29, 2010
Smokers Run Risk of Secondhand Smoke Exposure
According to a recent study in the Environmental Health journal, smokers are risking their health by inhaling their own secondhand smoke, let alone the tobacco smoke they inhale directly. According to the study, someone smoking 14 cigarettes a day re-inhaled exhaled “secondhand smoke,” resulting in an exposure to cancer-triggers equivalent to smoking an extra 2.6 cigarettes.
Read more information about this research.
January 27, 2010
Tobacco Companies Ask to Block Ruling in 4,000 Cases
Philip Morris USA and other major U.S. cigarette makers asked a federal appeals court to block federal trial courts from applying the 2006 Florida decision, which came in the state’s “Engle” tobacco class action, in any of the 4,000 cases against them in Florida federal court. The companies claim that applying the series of factual findings endorsed by the Florida Supreme Court in the Engle decision, including that the companies sold defective products and conspired to hide information about the health effects of smoking, would deprive them of a fair trial in thousands of death and injury suits in Florida.
Read more about this latest federal appeal in the Engle case.
January 25, 2010
Smoker’s Asbestos Claims Fall Short With Jury
A Los Angeles jury returned a defense verdict last week in a multi-million dollar asbestos case against tobacco company Lorillard, a maker of cigarettes equipped with asbestos filters in the 1950s, and three other defendants. Although Robert Cox, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2008, smoked Lorillard’s Kent cigarettes with asbestos-containing filters, the jury concluded that the product had no design defect and that Lorillard wasn’t negligent and didn’t have a duty to warn Cox about its product’s dangers.
Read more about Cox v. Asbestos Corp., BC409474.
January 22, 2010
Chinese Hospitals to Receive Smoking Checkups
According to the Chinese Ministry of Health, an independent taskforce will be established this year to conduct surprise inspections at medical institutions, including hospitals and health administrations, to enforce the country’s ban on smoking in these facilities. China is the world’s largest consumer of tobacco, with annual sales of 2 trillion cigarettes, and approximately 1 million smoking-related deaths each year. More than 55 percent of doctors on the mainland smoke. This latest initiative is to prompt medical institutions to establish and ensure a tobacco-free environment.
Read more about China’s recent tobacco control initiatives.
January 21, 2010
Georgia Prisons to be Smoke-free by Year End
By the end of the year, all smokers among the 60,000 prison inmates in Georgia will have to snuff out their cigarettes. Although most of Georgia’s county jails have been smoke-free for years, many of the state’s other prisons have allowed smoking outside in designated areas at designated times. The Georgia Department of Corrections has now designated all state prison facilities smoke-free. Inmates will be given advance notice and offered smoking cessation assistance.
Read more about Georgia’s smoke-free prison initiative.
January 20, 2010
FDA to Study Cigarette Ingredients
Under the new federal tobacco legislation, tobacco companies must tell the Food and Drug Administration for the first time the ingredients they use in cigarettes and other tobacco products. They will also be required to turn over any studies they have done on the effects of these ingredients. Although some tobacco companies have voluntarily listed product ingredients online in recent years, these lists have never been as specific as the FDA now requires.
Read more about the FDA tobacco ingredient disclosure requirement.
Read the Legal Consortium’s series of factsheets about the new federal tobacco regulation.
January 18, 2010
Idaho Court Rules Against Online Tobacco Seller
The Idaho Supreme Court has unanimously rejected an appeal by an online cigarette marketer who claimed his company was immune from state laws regulating tobacco sales. The marketer, a Native American from New York, claimed he was protected by federal interstate and Indian commerce laws, and that Idaho’s laws requiring tobacco retailers to register with the state did not apply to him.
Read more about the Idaho ruling on online tobacco sales.
January 15, 2010
Federal judge allows firms to import e-cigarettes into U.S.
On Thursday, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction barring the U.S. government from trying to regulate electronic cigarettes and prevent them from being imported into the United States. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that the Food and Drug Administration does not have the authority to regulate electronic cigarettes as drug-device combinations.
Read more about the ruling in Smoking Everywhere, Inc. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, et al.
Read the decision in Smoking Everywhere, Inc. v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, et al. PDF, 1.15 Mb
January 14, 2010
California Supreme Court denies tobacco company appeals
On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court unanimously denied review of tobacco companies’ appeals of a San Francisco jury’s award of $2.85 million in damages to the family of Leslie Whiteley, who died of lung cancer in 2000 after smoking cigarettes for 26 years.
Read more about the California case, Whiteley vs. R.J. Reynolds.
January 13, 2010
ALA Releases 2009 State of Nation Report
In its annual report on tobacco control, the American Lung Association reports that the U.S. government took major steps toward curbing tobacco use in 2009, but needs to do more to fight tobacco-related illnesses. The ALA report grades the federal and state governments on cigarette taxes, smoke-free laws, tobacco prevention and control efforts, and cessation programs. According to the report, the federal government earned a grade of “A” for passing legislation that gives the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco. The ALA also gave credit to the U.S. Congress for more than doubling the federal cigarette tax last year, from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack, although that still falls below the average state cigarette tax of $2.68 per pack.
Read the American Lung Association’s State of Tobacco Control 2009.
January 11, 2010
Philip Morris takes aim at San Francisco’s new cigarette fee
Philip Morris has filed a complaint in San Francisco’s Superior Court over the city’s recent 20-cent fee on cigarette packs. The city added the fee to recoup what it estimates is $7.5 million to clean up cigarette butts each year. Phillip Morris claims the fee, which took effect October 1, is unconstitutional since voters didn’t approve it. The city argues that since it’s a fee, rather than a tax, voter approval isn’t needed.
Read more about the tobacco company’s challenge to SF’s cigarette fee.
January 8, 2010
American Legacy Organization to Appeal Ohio Ruling in Effort to Preserve $258M in State Tobacco Funds
The American Legacy Organization is appealing to the Ohio Supreme Court to stop the state from diverting tens of millions of dollars set aside to prevent tobacco use. Legacy℠ will challenge last week’s ruling from the Ohio Court of Appeals of Franklin County, Tenth Appellate District, which reversed a lower court’s order permanently enjoining the State of Ohio from dissolving the endowment of the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation. The value of the Ohio tobacco settlement funds has climbed to $258 million as the court fight has continued.
Read more about the ongoing Ohio litigation regarding tobacco settlement funds.
January 6, 2010
Federal Court Upholds Key Provisions of FDA Tobacco Regulation Law
On Tuesday afternoon, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky ruled on a challenge to the recently passed law giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco. Public health advocates are pleased that the judge upheld the vast majority of the new law’s provisions, including those that:
The court struck down provisions that ban the use of color and imagery in tobacco advertising in locations viewed by large numbers of youth, and that prohibit claims implying that a tobacco product is safer because of FDA approval. The ruling is likely to be appealed.
Read more information about the decision.
Read the opinion in Commonwealth Brands, Inc. v. United States of America. PDF, 257 Kb
Read more about the new federal legislation to regulate tobacco products.
January 5, 2010
Despite Ban, Smoking Continues in NYC Nightclubs
Six years after New York City enacted an indoor smoke-free law covering bars and restaurants, many bars and nightclubs continue to look the other way. In response, the New York City Health Department has increased late-night smoking patrols; as a result, the number of citations for indoor smoking rose 35 percent this summer over last summer.
Read more about ongoing violations of the smoke-free law in New York City clubs and other venues.