CALIFORNIA: State Senate Votes To Raise Cigarette Buying Age To 21

Via the Los Angeles Times:

The state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would raise the minimum legal age for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products from 18 to 21 as part of an effort to reduce smoking by young people. Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina) said he introduced the bill, SB 151, out of concern that an estimated 90% of tobacco users start before age 21. Raising the minimum age will mean that fewer teenagers pick up the habit, said Hernandez, an optometrist. He cited a study done by the Institute of Medicine for the federal Food and Drug Administration that concluded that raising the smoking age to 21 would cut smoking by 12% more than existing control policies. “It’s time to stop allowing tobacco companies to make the deadly product so readily available to our youth,’’ Hernandez said.

A similar age 21 requirement was approved by the Hawaii legislature in late April and awaits the governor's signature. Four states have set their cigarette purchasing age at 19: Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey, and Utah. New York City raised the buying age to 21 in late 2013.

New York City And New York State Sue UPS For Shipping Untaxed Cigarettes

Via Reuters:

New York City and New York state sued United Parcel Service Inc. on Wednesday, seeking over $180 million in damages and penalties against the shipping company for allegedly delivering nearly 700,000 cartons of untaxed cigarettes across the state. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accuses UPS of cheating the state and city of $29.7 million and $4.7 million, respectively, in tax revenue, according to a statement from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The deliveries mostly originated from smoke shops on Indian reservations in New York state and were shipped to unlicensed wholesalers and retailers as well as residences in New York and nationwide, according to the lawsuit. The deliveries, which violated both federal and state laws, were made despite a 2005 agreement between UPS and the state in which the company agreed to stop cigarette shipments to individual consumers and unlicensed dealers, Schneiderman said.

A similar suit filed last year against FedEx remains pending. Cigarettes sold in New York City are taxed an extra $5.85 per pack.

Sen. Rand Paul Blames Cigarette Taxes For The Death Of Eric Garner

(Via Igor Volsky at Think Progress)

MASSACHUSETTS: Town Considers A First-In-Nation Ban On Tobacco Sales

Via the Associated Press:

The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal and packs of Swisher Sweets are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent’s Country Store, but maybe not for much longer: All tobacco products could become contraband if local health officials get their way. This sleepy central Massachusetts town of 7,700 has become an improbable battleground in America’s tobacco wars. On Wednesday, the Board of Health will hear public comment on a proposed regulation that could make Westminster the first municipality in the United States to ban sales of all tobacco products within town lines. “To my knowledge, it would be the first in the nation to enact a total ban,” said Thomas Carr, director of national policy at the American Lung Association. “We commend the town for doing it.”

Tobacco giant Altria, the makers of Marlboro, Virginia Slims, and dozens of other cigarette brands, is very unhappy: "The proposed regulations, if enacted, would fundamentally alter these businesses and would likely cost Westminster jobs."

CVS Ad Features Bear Couple

CVS has ceased selling cigarettes and their new ad about that change features a fleeting glimpse of a handsome bear couple at the 0:25 mark.

(Tipped by JMG reader Matt)

Petition To Walgreens: No More Tobacco

Earlier this month CVS announced that it would stop selling cigarettes, a move that will take a $2B chunk out of the company's annual grosses, at least until they decide how to fill those shelves behind the chain's few remaining staffed check-out stations. And now there's a petition for Walgreens, the nation's largest drugstore chain, to do the same. (Walgreens bought NYC's 257 Duane Reade stores in 2010.)

CVS To Stop Selling Cigarettes

CVS Caremark, the nation's second largest drugstore chain with over 7600 locations, has announced that they will phase out all tobacco sales by the end of the year.

The company declined to say what will take tobacco's prominent shelf place behind cash registers at the front of its stores. CVS Caremark will test some items and may expand smoking cessation products that are already sold near cigarettes. CVS Caremark has been working to team up with hospital groups and doctor practices to help deliver and monitor patient care, and the presence of tobacco in its stores has made for some awkward conversations, CVS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Troyen A. Brennan said. "One of the first questions they ask us is, 'Well, if you're going to be part of the health care system, how can you continue to sell tobacco products?'" he said. "There's really no good answer to that at all."

President Obama has issued a statement which praises the company for the move, which is expected to cut annual sales by about $2B.

NYC Sues Fedex Over Shipping Cigarettes

In what some see as Mayor Bloomberg's final stab at the tobacco industry, New York City today filed a massive lawsuit against Fedex for shipping cigarettes to private homes.

Monday's lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan and seeks $52 million of civil fines and unpaid taxes from FedEx, which is based in Memphis, Tennessee. According to the city, FedEx created a "public nuisance" through its partnership with Shinnecock Smoke Shop, located on the Shinnecock Indian Nation reservation in Southampton, N.Y., to ship untaxed cigarettes to residential homes. FedEx allegedly did so despite, and even while negotiating, a February 2006 agreement with then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to stop such deliveries in New York, an agreement later expanded to cover deliveries throughout the country. The city said FedEx delivered about 19.5 tons, or 55,000 cartons, of cigarettes to city residents in 9,900 shipments from 2005 to 2012 and deprived it of a $15 excise tax on each carton. A typical carton has 200 cigarettes. FedEx's activity violated various federal and state laws, including an anti-racketeering statute, the complaint said. The city wants FedEx to pay a $49.5 million fine, equal to $5,000 per shipment, plus $2.48 million representing triple the lost tax revenue.

RELATED:  With an average price-per-pack of $13-$14, New York has by far the highest cigarette prices in the nation, a fact that has spawned sprawling smuggling operations by organized crime syndicates.

NYC-Based Realty Group Bans Smoking In Rented Apartments Nationwide

The Related Companies, a New York City-based real estate group with properties across the nation, has banned smoking in all 40,000 of its rental units.

Although the program will roll out gradually, it appears to be the first of this scale by a national property owner. It also seems likely to create controversy. Where past efforts against smoking have focused on public gathering places — like bars, stadiums and courthouses — Related is now trying to prohibit legal private behavior. Not that smokers will get kicked to the curb right away. New tenants must sign a contract promising not to smoke anywhere in the building, including their private terraces or balconies. If they break the rules, they can be evicted. But those already renting will not face the same fate until after they renew their leases and sign the no-smoking contract. With a turnover rate of 10,000 a year, Related’s apartments could conceivably be smoke-free in a few years’ time.

The New York Times notes that enforcement will most rely on neighbors narcing on each other. 

NY State May Raise Smoking Age To 21

Christine Quinn's plan to raise the smoking age in New York City is going statewide.

New York would become the first state to hike the age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21 under new legislation announced Sunday. Officials moved to stop a cross-border bonanza in cigarette sales if a hike in the age proposed by the city last week goes through by extending the measure statewide. “Young people will go across the border,” said Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island), who is sponsoring the state bill, adding that after the city bill was announced, “All of the cigarette sellers in the other counties said, ‘That’s great! You want to raise the age in New York City, they’ll just come to Nassau, they’ll come to Suffolk, they’ll come to Westchester, they’ll come to Rockland.”

The New York Association of Grocery Stores is opposing the bill.

NYC May Raise Smoking Age To 21

The New York City Council is expected to introduce an ordinance today that will raise the minimum age to purchase cigarettes to 21.  The new law, if approved, will give the city the highest such requirement in the nation.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to announce the city’s latest anti-smoking measure Monday morning with Mayor Bloomberg’s Health Commissioner Thomas Farley.  The bill is a clear indication that Quinn, a leading mayoral candidate, would continue some of the controversial health laws that have been central to the Bloomberg administration if she’s elected mayor. It comes in the wake of a recent proposal by Bloomberg to force stores to keep tobacco products out of sight, behind the counter or in a drawer. The city banned smoking in restaurants and bars ten years ago, and has also banned smokes in parks and beaches. City smoking rates have dropped dramatically.

Via press release from Speaker Quinn:

“Too many adult smokers begin this deadly habit before age 21,” said Speaker Quinn. “By delaying our city’s children and young adults access to lethal tobacco products, we’re decreasing the likelihood they ever start smoking, and thus, creating a healthier city.” “When used as intended, tobacco kills one-third of the people who use it,” said Health Commissioner Farley. “By raising the legal purchase age to 21, we will prevent a generation of New Yorkers from becoming addicted to smoking and ultimately save thousands of lives.”

Nationwide the minimum age to buy cigarettes is 18, except in DC, Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey, and Utah, where it is 19.  Smoking rates have plummeted during Mayor Bloomberg's three terms and one study estimates that over 500,000 residents have abandoned the habit in the last decade.  About 7% of NYC's high school students smoke. Nationwide that rate is about 19%.

Courtney Love For E-Cigarettes

"Relax, it's a fuckin' NJOY."

Bloomberg: Set Minimum Price On Cigs

A pack of cigarettes usually costs $12 to $14 at NYC locations, but some retailers occasionally run tobacco industry promotions that bring the price down a few dollars. Mayor Bloomberg wants to end that practice by setting a minimum price of $10.50 in order to stem impulse purchases, particularly by young people.

According to a Federal Trade Commission report issued last year, the tobacco industry spent $6.5 billion on discounts in 2010, and Dr. Ribisl said they are one of the major ways cigarette makers encourage price-conscious customers like teenagers and low-income smokers to buy. City and state taxes already add $5.85 to the cost of every pack, the highest cigarette taxes in the country. About half of all states, including New York, also require wholesalers and retailers to mark the price of cigarettes up by a certain percentage. The laws were generally intended to protect business in small stores by preventing large chains from selling cigarettes below cost, as so-called loss leaders, which draw in customers. Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal, which will be taken up by the City Council, goes beyond those laws by specifying a minimum price.

Bloomberg's pricing bill is a companion item to last week's bill to force retailers to stock cigarettes out of view from customers. The minimum pricing bill also bans two-for-one sales and the offering of coupons.

NEW YORK CITY: Bloomberg Unveils Plan To Force Retailers To Conceal Cigarettes

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose almost-annual tax increases over the last decade have raised the price of cigarettes to over $14 per pack at many retailers, today revealed his latest plan to curb smoking.

Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference that the proposal would make New York the first city in the nation to keep tobacco products out of sight. He said smoking remained a leading cause of preventable death, killing 7,000 New Yorkers a year. The proposal will go to the City Council for its consideration, a step that Mr. Bloomberg skipped when he proposed a ban on sugary drinks bigger than 16 ounces in movie theaters, restaurants and other establishments. Mr. Bloomberg’s latest proposal could meet with stiff resistance from the operators of bodegas and other small stores, where cigarettes, like bottled water and lottery tickets, account for a large percentage of sales. Stores would still be able to advertise that they sell cigarettes, and could display prices.

Since Bloomberg took office in 2001 more than 500,000 New Yorkers have given up smoking, with many saying that it was the continual rise in prices that spurred them to quit. In addition to Bloomberg's tax increases, he also championed a series of gruesome television and print ads and ordered the city to further clamp down on the few remaining public spaces where smoking had been allowed. New York City has the highest tax on cigarettes in the nation.

SF Considers Outdoor Smoking Ban

For cigarettes. Medical marijuana would be excluded.

Smoking anything other than medically-prescribed marijuana at San Francisco street fairs, festivals and other outdoor events held on city property would be banned under new legislation before the Board of Supervisors. Supervisor Eric Mar said he introduced the proposal because of the health impacts of secondhand smoke when people light up in public. “It’s widely known that secondhand smoke is responsible for as many as 73,000 deaths among non-smokers each year in the United States, and there is no safe level of exposure,” he said.

NYC already bans smoking in virtually all public spaces.

California LGBT Anti-Smoking Ad

It seems like they could have come up with a better phone number than 1-800-No-Butts. (Via Copyranter)

Gay Military Marriage Proposal

Promoted by CRUSH, an LGBT anti-smoking campaign.

Pornstaches In Old Cigarette Ads

The pornstache was once a staple of manly cigarette ads. Head over to Copyranter for a flashback selection of examples.

RANKED: Healthiest States

Insurance giant United Healthcare has ranked the "healthiest states" according to factors like diet, exercise, smoking, obesity, etc.

For the fifth year in a row, Vermont is the nation’s healthiest state. States that showed the most substantial improvement include New York and New Jersey, both moving up six places, largely because of improvements made in smoking cessation. Idaho and Alaska showed the most downward movement. Idaho dropped 10 spots, from number nine to 19 in this year’s Rankings, and Alaska dropped five places. Mississippi is 50th and the least healthy state, while Louisiana is 49th. Oklahoma, Arkansas and Alabama complete the bottom five states.

According to United Healthcare, 17.3% of adults are smokers, an all-time low. Twenty years ago that number was almost 30%. (Via -Igor Volsky)

Oral Sex: Worse Than Smoking?

We haven't had a "shocking" medical study in a few hours.

So here.

A study published in yesterday's Journal of Clinical Oncology reveals that as many as 72 percent of throat tumors in men may be linked to the human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV. The researchers hypothesize that the virus spreads predominately via oral sex, and that it may already account for more cases of throat cancer than smoking. "The burden of cancer caused by HPV is going to shift from women to men in this decade," said Maura Gillison, an oncologist at Ohio State University and lead author of the study. "What we believe is happening is that the number of sexual partners and exposure to HPV has risen over that same time period."

Here's the study's abstract.