N.H. Cigarette Tax to Decrease

Smoking in New Hampshire is about to get a little less costly. Democratic Governor John Lynch has announced that he would let a $10.2 billion budget, which includes a 10-cent reduction in state cigarette taxes, become law without his signature, according to the Associated Press.

Lynch (pictured) said the budget does not account for up to $30 million in lost revenues, but said a veto would not lead to a better budget and could cause a government shutdown.

The state's current $1.78 state tax is also already lower than its neighbors: Maine ($2), Massachusetts ($2.51) and Vermont ($2.24). (Vermont's tax will increase 38 cents to $2.62 on July 1.)

According to research conducted by Southern New Hampshire University for the New Hampshire Grocers Association, a 10-cent-per-pack excise-tax reduction could mean $1.7 million more profit for the state's convenience stores, and $12.8 million more in cigarette excise and other taxes (such as business-profit and business-enterprise taxes).

John Dumais, president and CEO of the association, told Tobacco E-News, the companion publication of CSP Daily News, that purchases that might come along with people crossing the borders of New Hampshire to buy cigarettes could include gasoline, food, beverages and even hotel rooms.

"It's primarily to help business, but it ultimately helps the state, because when those cross-border sales come to New Hampshire, they buy a lot of other products," he said.

Irish 'pay most' for alcohol, tobacco

Irish residents are paying 70 per cent more than the European Union average for alcohol and tobacco products, according to a study by statistics agency Eurostat.

Overall, people in Ireland are paying the fifth highest prices in the EU for consumer goods and services, with levels at their most expensive in Denmark and cheapest in Bulgaria.

On average, goods and services cost 18 per cent more here than in the UK. The largest differences between the two countries were in the prices of alcohol and tobacco (28 per cent more) and restaurants and hotel accommodation (26 per cent more).

Irish people are paying above EU average prices in four of the six categories, with both clothing and consumer electronics goods falling just below the 27 country average.

Irish residents face the second highest costs for food and non-alcoholic beverages, some 20 per cent more than the average, with Danish residents paying most and those in Romania and Bulgaria being charged just two thirds the EU average.

The cost of restaurants and hotels here was the joint third highest the EU, behind Denmark and Sweden and tied with Finland. Bulgarians paid 45 per cent of the EU average for these goods.

The cost of alcohol and tobacco products here was almost three times what people in Bulgaria and Romania pay, and 28 per cent higher than in the UK, which was found to have the second highest costs in the category.

“This large price variation is mainly due to differences in taxation of these products among member states,” Eurostat said.

Supreme Court Lets $270 Million Tobacco Award Stand

Cigarette makers must pay to help smokers in Louisiana quit their habit, as the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by tobacco companies in a landmark class-action case.

By refusing to throw out a $270 million jury award, the high court put an end to a case that began in May 1996, when some 500,000 smokers in Louisiana filed a class-action suit against tobacco companies.

As the AP reports, "The smokers prevailed at every step in state courts, but Justice Antonin Scalia temporarily blocked payment of the money in September, citing concerns that the cigarette makers might have been deprived of their legal rights."

Tobacco regulation: Kneecapping the FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration barely had time to start regulating cigarettes before legislation was introduced to weaken its authority.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was passed in 2009 with sweeping majorities in both houses; its primary goal was to reduce the terrible toll that smoking takes on Americans' health, especially by discouraging young people from taking up the habit. The law gave the FDA the authority to regulate the advertising and packaging of cigarettes, along with ingredients such as nicotine and flavorings that affect how easily the public is drawn into smoking and how addictive the habit is once started. As required in the law, for example, the FDA banned candy flavorings in cigarettes, which make the product more appealing to underage smokers and young adults.
But now that the agency is taking meaningful steps against smoking, Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Montana) has added an amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill that would restrict the FDA's authority over cigarettes and a host of other matters. Currently, the FDA is considering whether to ban one of the most popular and profitable ingredients — menthol — but Rehberg's amendment would keep it from taking that action. No longer would the FDA be able to consider a substance's tendency to attract smokers or make cigarettes more addictive. Rather, the FDA could only ban or limit ingredients that are found to make the cigarette physically more harmful than existing products. Menthol has not been found to do that; it does its damage by drawing people into smoking and keeping them there. Menthol masks the flavor and irritation of cigarette smoke; menthol cigarettes are perceived by consumers as "light" or less dangerous, though they aren't. Studies have found that menthol makes it easier for young smokers to get started and harder for habitual smokers to stop. Unlike restrictions on fruit flavors, a ban on menthol could dramatically affect smoking rates — one-fourth of smokers prefer menthol brands — which is exactly why the tobacco industry is fighting any such restrictions.

In addition to the tobacco provisions, the law would limit the FDA's authority to reject new drugs as long as they had any benefit, even if they fell far short of promises or carried significant risks, and it would be unable to restrict the use of routine, preventive antibiotics in livestock, which has been identified as a significant source of drug-resistant bacteria. About 80% of the antibiotics in this country are used to promote growth in livestock and prevent epidemics from sweeping through herds and flocks under crowded conditions. The measure has been passed by the House Appropriations Committee.

Group honors anti-tobacco advocates

The Rip Van Winkle Tobacco-Free Action last week held its annual recognition dinner, honoring groups and individuals for their work in discouraging smoking and tobacco use.

“Your work is being effective and you should keep it up,” said Assemblyman Peter Lopez, who spoke to the group. “You are not telling people what to do with their lives, you are just educating them so they can make educated decisions.”

Director Karen dePeyster said there has been significant progress in the battle against smoking and tobacco use. In 1964, she said, nearly 50% of adults were smokers.

“Yesterday, we learned from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) the new smoking rates,” dePeyster said. “The national rate is now 17.9%, and the New York State rate is down to 15.5%. So fifty years ago, 4.5 people out of ten were smokers. Now, 1.5 in ten smoke.”

She also pointed out that something that seems so basic now – that smoking is not allowed in restaurants – was just a pipe dream a decade ago.

“Ten years ago, we were imagining what it would be like to go to a restaurant and not be assaulted by smoke,” dePeyster said. “In 2003, the New York State legislature passed the Clean Indoor Air Act, and now we all take it for granted.”

The ceremony’s guest speaker was Kim Alessi, a former tobacco representative for Philip Morris, the leading tobacco manufacturer. She outlined the billions of dollars the industry spends on marketing their product each year.

According to Alessi, tobacco companies spend $12.49 billion on marketing in the United States. Comparatively, junk food and soda companies spend $4.5 billion, and alcohol companies spend $3.13 billion.

And, she said, the companies may deny it, but they do market to children. She said that company memos repeatedly said one of their key target markets are 14 to 24 year olds.

Alessi also told the heart-wrenching story of a man she met while marketing her product at a convenience store. He was at the counter purchasing cigarettes, and she saw “he had a gaping hole in his throat”, and had lost his larynx to smoking.

“This drug, this cigarette is so addictive, this man continued to smoke even after losing his larynx,” Alessi said.

This year, Rip Van Winkle Tobacco-Free Action handed out awards to more two dozen organizations that have made policy changes in the areas of tobacco-free outdoor air, smoke-free housing and tobacco marketing.

Eighteen towns and villages were honored for their work in making various outdoor spaces – like parks and playgrounds – smoke-free. They include the towns of Claverack, Ghent, Ancram, Austerlitz, Germantown, Greenville, Cairo, Copake, Chatham, Kinderhook, Livingston, Stockport and Catskill, and the villages of Coxsackie and Tannersville. Also promoting tobacco-free outdoor air were the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, the Childcare Council of Columbia and Greene Counties, and Columbia Opportunities and Head Start.

Five companies were honored for making housing smoke-free, including Belmont Management, Kaaterskill Manor, Rivertown Senior Apartments, Hudson Terrace Apartments and Mountainview Apartments.

Leading the way against tobacco marketing were Hannaford Supermarkets and the Hudson and Taconic Hills SADD Chapters.

Students smoke hookah despite health risks

The number of hookah pipes in use seems to multiply every year, but students who smoke them may want to look into the health risks before lighting the coal.
A World Health Organization report said people who smoke hookah for an hour are inhaling as much smoke as if they had burned through 100 cigarettes.
Students who use it say they're not worried about the health risks because they don't smoke very often. Senior business administration major Bridget Edgeworth said she smokes hookah "maybe once a month" and doesn't have a physical addiction to it in the same way people have an addiction to cigarettes.
"I'll wake up with a headache after smoking hookah for a night, but I don't crave it like a cigarette," she said.
HEALTH ORGANIZATIONS WEIGH IN
Kent Bullis, medical director of the Amelia T. Wood Health Center, said smoking hookah is no less harmful than smoking cigarettes, but comparing the two is not as simple as the WHO makes it out to be.
"Hookah is different than cigarettes," Bullis said. "There are different proportions of nicotine versus tar versus carbon monoxide versus numerous other carcinogens. Plus with hookah you are typically adding in whatever source of combustion you are using to get the tobacco to burn."
He said carbon monoxide from coals used to smoke hookah are harmful, but the degree of harm is not something that can be quantified based on recent studies.
"There are studies of Egyptian men who smoke hookah showing what appears to be rates of emphysema 2-3 times higher than one would expect from smoking cigarettes," he said. "These are small studies and have not been duplicated in other populations yet, so it is hard to know how much weight to give them."
Various health organizations have published articles that agree with the 2005 WHO study, but they report different levels of harm caused by smoking hookah causes.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted similar numbers in their reports and emphasized that hookah smoking is not a safe alternative to smoking cigarettes.
An article posted on the Mayo Clinic website said hookah smoking is not safer than cigarette smoking, but gave no definite numbers on how harmful it is. It said the carbon monoxide that's inhaled from using hookah is worse that inhaling the same gas from cigarette smoke.

Merchants Learn Importance of Checking IDs for Beer, Cigarettes

The first line of defense to keep young people from becoming addicted to alcohol and drugs just might be the local grocery store.
A "Merchant’s Roundtable" was held Tuesday at Moundsville's Grand Vue park, presented by the Marshall County Anti-Drug Coalition and the Ohio County Substance Abuse Coalition. They are explaining how to make it clear to their customers that they won't sell beer or cigarettes to juveniles.

To card every customer or only those whose age is questionable is up to each merchant to make the decision.

Merchants know all too well that a 50-year-old buying a pack of cigarettes, who didn't bring his driver's license into the store, can become hostile when he's told, "no ID, no sale."

But that same 50-year-old might be buying those cigarettes or that beer for an underage person.

The alcohol and drug abuse prevention experts suggest to merchants that by having a clearly posted policy saying they card every alcohol and tobacco customer, can protect them from tirades about being unfair.

According to Susan Oglinsky with the Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, a new campaign has been unveiled and it's called United in Prevention which encourages people to hold up Ids so it can show if it's red or blue, the kids are underage. If it's white, then go ahead and sell, Oglinsky added.

They passed out marketing materials which included door signs, stickers, even pins for merchants to wear, saying, "We hold up Ids." And while some customers will complain, others want to see them do this.