Tobacco Products

Seeking to battle diseases afflicting East Baltimore neighborhoods, a local group has been targeting merchants who sell cigarettes to minors, saying they say are a major part of the problem.In a two-week campaign that ended yesterday, members of Project BLESS (Baltimore Leading Everyone to Stop Smoking) visited more than 125 East Baltimore grocery and convenience stores to get their message across. At each store, they have tried to leave a poster that proclaims: "We don't sell cigarettes to minors.

Anne Arundel Medical Center has adopted a new policy that prohibits use of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. And next year, the hospital plans to stop hiring anyone who uses tobacco products. The hospital has banned cigarette smoking on campus since 2007, like many hospitals, but the new policy in effect July 1 was expanded to include the smokeless products. And there will be no designated smoking areas in garages or on sidewalks. The policy applies to staff, as well as vendors and visitors.

Anne Arundel Medical Center has adopted a new policy that prohibits use of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. And next year, the hospital plans to stop hiring anyone who uses tobacco products. The hospital has banned cigarette smoking on campus since 2007, like many hospitals, but the new policy in effect July 1 was expanded to include the smokeless products. And there will be no designated smoking areas in garages or on sidewalks. The policy applies to staff, as well as vendors and visitors.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the first time used its legal authority to ban certain tobacco products from the market, the agency said Friday. The FDA said the maker of has ordered the maker of Sutra Bidis Red, Sutra Bidis Menthol, Sutra Bidis Red Cone and Sutra Bidis Menthol Cone to stop selling and distributing them in the United States. They are thin tobacco-filled cigarettes hand-rolled in leaves from a tendu tree and tied with a string. The FDA was given authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution and marketing of tobacco products from market under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009.

I was very pleased to read the article about the Community College of Baltimore County's decision to ban tobacco use on its campuses ("CCBC to ban tobacco products on its campuses," June 25). Wouldn't it be nice if smoking was banned all over Maryland! Nick Delambo, Baltimore

I was dismayed by the letter written by Brad Rodu minimizing the devastating health consequences caused by using smokeless tobacco products ("All tobacco is not equally harmful," Jan. 24). Dr. Rodu is a dentist and scientist at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center. He receives funding from the tobacco industry and promotes the false virtues of chewing tobacco, snuff and other smokeless tobacco products. A quick Google search reveals he has been carrying the tobacco industry's water for more than 20 years now. Contrary to Dr. Rodu's statements, regular use of smokeless tobacco products can lead to the presence of oral cancer within an alarmingly swift five years.

WASHINGTON -- Landmark legislation that would give the federal government the power to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products passed an early hurdle yesterday. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the bill, 38-12. The measure would allow the Food and Drug Administration to review new tobacco products before they could go on sale, limit advertising and restrict sales to youths. It would also enable the agency to regulate levels of tar, nicotine and other ingredients.

WASHINGTON -- Three key congressional tobacco foes announced yesterday that they will attempt to get a quick House vote on legislation that would require the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco, but would forbid the agency from imposing a total ban on cigarettes.Reps. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., Mike Synar, D-Okla., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that they have asked the Rules Committee to allow the amendment to be attached to the agriculture appropriations bill in order to put the measure on a fast track to a House vote.

A tax increase on small cigars and other tobacco products popular with teenagers has resulted in a bump in the prices of these products just as health advocates had hoped. The Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition will release a study today showing that prices have increased since the tax went into affect July 1. For instance, a single Swisher Sweets flavored cigar cost $1.29 before the tax and now costs $1.69.  A 5-pack of Swisher Sweets cost $5.49 before the tax and now costs $7.99.

Health advocate Vinny DeMarco was thrilled and delighted this week when the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee approved the most important part of his proposal to increase taxes  on tobacco products  other that cigarettes as part its budget package. Now the irrepressible DeMarco wants the rest. The Senate committee agreed to raise the price on small cigars -- a type of tobacco products that has been increasingly appealing to young people as cigarette  taxes have been increased -- from 15 percent to 70 percent.

I am not a smoker, but CVS's decision to stop selling cigarettes is laughable ( "CVS goes smoke free," Feb. 5). The company has obviously done this for the publicity so it can stand out while not caring one iota about consumers' health. If they care so much about consumers' health, why not get rid of the candy, chips, alcohol products and soda pop as well? Maybe they forgot that their tobacco products are drawing customers into the store to make other purchases - such as candy, cosmetics and prescription medication - as well as visit their walk-in "clinics" (as a physician, I object to the irresponsible use of that term)

During the last decade, local, state and federal governments have sought to make smoking inconvenient by restricting where and when people can light up. They have made it more expensive by increasing taxes - to the point that a pack of cigarettes costs at least $10.50 in New York City. They have tried to make it scary by requiring ever larger and blunter warnings about the health risks of smoking on cigarette packaging. And they have worked to make it un-cool, most recently with a new advertising and social media campaign this week aimed at teens.

Maryland lawmakers on Monday introduced a bill to restrict the sale of tobacco products in the state to those age 21 and older instead of the current age of 18. If passed, that would make Maryland the strictest state in the nation when it comes to cigarette purchases. A few states have raised the tobacco buying age to 19, but no other state has reached the 21 marker, and only one city has: New York City last year passed a bill restricting the sale of tobacco to age 21; it goes into effect in April.

Last week the federal Food and Drug Administration quietly did something that it has never done before. For the first time in its history, the agency charged with protecting the public from harmful foods and medicines rejected a bid by the tobacco industry to put new products on the market, based on the fact that they posed a serious risk to public health. Under a 2009 law supported by the Obama administration, the agency was granted the power to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products, including cigars, loose rolling tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff.

Those of us who work in the news business are well-accustomed to hearing the lament that it would be nice to see some positive things get a little bit of publicity. We're also a bit sensitive to it not because the lament is well-founded, but because there's never really a shortage of good news, and a fair amount of good news generally finds its way into print. The problem is, unfortunately, bad news is often more useful than good news, and it's generally what we focus on. A deer causes a bad accident.

A tax increase on small cigars and other tobacco products popular with teenagers has resulted in a bump in the prices of these products just as health advocates had hoped. The Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition will release a study today showing that prices have increased since the tax went into affect July 1. For instance, a single Swisher Sweets flavored cigar cost $1.29 before the tax and now costs $1.69.  A 5-pack of Swisher Sweets cost $5.49 before the tax and now costs $7.99.

WASHINGTON -- Taking on a struggle that is likely to determine the fate of the tobacco industry, the Supreme Court agreed yesterday to rule on the Clinton administration's sweeping plan to control how cigarettes and chewing tobacco are made and sold.Under that plan, aimed mainly at protecting youths, the Food and Drug Administration would restrict minors' access to tobacco items and control the marketing of those products.In the future, the agency could regulate the ingredients of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, probably to reduce or eliminate nicotine.

Congress wants to give the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate cigarettes and even ban most flavored cigarettes. But there's a catch. Menthol cigarettes would be exempted from the ban, leaving in place a large portion of the cigarette market that has particular appeal to young people and to African-Americans. That appears to be the distasteful price for putting cigarettes under the watchful eye of the FDA. But if Congress indeed gives the FDA the oversight authority, the agency should look seriously at the scientific evidence and make its own determination about whether menthol cigarettes deserve a regulatory pass.

A recent article on tobacco use pointed out that although cigarette smoking has gone down nationally, the use of cigars and other non-cigarette tobacco products has gone up over the past few years ("Cigarette use down, other tobacco up, CDC says," Aug. 3). A recent study of Maryland youth tobacco use reported a similar troubling trend - while fewer kids are getting addicted to cigarettes (thanks to our smoke-free air laws and tax increases), more kids are smoking cheap flavored cigars that are just as detrimental to their health.

Maryland's seizures of contraband tobacco quadrupled between 2010 and 2012, Comptroller Peter Franchot said Wednesday, attributing the increase in part to lax penalties that fail to deter cigarette smugglers from a highly profitable enterprise. Flanked by piles of confiscated tobacco and alcohol products, Franchot announced that his field enforcement agents and other police agencies had seized 325,851 packs of illegally trafficked cigarettes valued at $2 million in the 12 months that ended June 30. The confiscations represent a near-doubling of the previous year's total of 184,498 and are more than four times the total posted in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2010.