Tobacco Products

LONDON — Britain's Department of Health announced a ban on displaying cigarettes in stores around the country on Thursday, the nation's annual "no smoking day. " The action relegates cigarettes to a product kept below the counter. The new law will be introduced gradually, according to a statement from the health agency. It says that in large stores and supermarkets, the visible display of cigarettes, cigars and tobacco products will be illegal from April 2012, while in smaller stores it goes into force in 2015, "except for temporary displays in certain limited circumstances.

SACRAMENTO — A federal judge in Sacramento has sentenced a Los Angeles tobacco distributor to 15 months in prison and ordered him to pay $880,000 to California for his participation in a scheme to defraud the state of more than $800,000 in excise taxes. Jawid Wahidi, 34, the owner of tobacco distributor LMS International, was sentenced Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on May 10 to charges of mail fraud. According to U.S. Atty. Benjamin B. Wagner, Wahidi filed statements with the California Board of Equalization that "dramatically under-reported the amount of tobacco he sold in the state.

A state board, acting to implement voter-passed Proposition 99, decided Wednesday to tax the wholesale cost of tobacco products other than cigarettes at about 42 cents on the dollar. Consumers buying cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff and chewing tobacco at retail outlets will therefore pay at least 42 cents more per dollar of product, said E. V. Anderson, the State Board of Equalization's administrator of excise taxes.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has blocked the federal government's plan to require cigarette manufacturers to cover half of each package sold with a graphic health warning. In his ruling, issued late Wednesday, Leon said the government mandate amounted to an "impermissible expropriation of a company's advertising space for government advocacy. " That decision confirms a temporary stay issued by Leon in November - a move that signaled his view that a suit brought last August by several tobacco manufacturers against the Department of Health and Human Services would likely prevail.

Capping a half-century battle with the tobacco industry, the Senate overwhelmingly approved landmark legislation Thursday that would for the first time give the government far-reaching power to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The House was expected to follow today.

By a 3 to 1 margin, the House on Friday approved a bill passed by the Senate this week that gives the federal government sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco. President Obama hailed the bipartisan votes in Congress on the bill, which he said "truly defines change in Washington." He said he looks forward to signing it into law.

Discount retailer ShopKo Stores said Tuesday that it will no longer sell tobacco products in its 130 department stores. Terry McDonald, a senior vice president at ShopKo, which operates stores in 15 states from Wisconsin to Oregon, cited a steady decline in cigarette sales, which account for less than 1% of the chain's revenue. ShopKo, which has no stores in California, becomes the second mass retailer to banish tobacco from its shelves.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Saturday signed legislation prohibiting the handing out of free promotional samples of cigarettes and chewing tobacco on street corners and other places open to the public. Aimed at preventing children from becoming addicted to tobacco, the bill was the only substantive anti-smoking bill--of more than a dozen introduced--to survive stiff opposition of the well-heeled tobacco lobby and reach Wilson's desk.

In a historic shift in public health policy, Congress is poised to give the federal government sweeping new authority to regulate the manufacturing of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The legislation, long resisted by the tobacco industry, could allow consumers to see for the first time what chemicals and other additives tobacco companies put in their products.

Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who announced his retirement earlier this month, will kick off a state ballot initiative campaign in Los Angeles on Monday for a measure that would direct hundreds of millions of dollars toward cancer research by levying an additional $1 tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. Organizers of the initiative known as the California Cancer Research Act, which was spearheaded by former state Senate leader Don Perata, gathered more than 433,000 signatures last year to qualify for the next statewide ballot, which is scheduled for February 2012.

Amid the slew of college football bowl games over the next two weeks is a controversy over whether such games should be sponsored by tobacco companies. Health groups are speaking out against Camacho Cigars' involvement at the 2012 Discovery Orange Bowl on Jan. 4 in Miami Gardens, Fla. The company will have cigar smoking lounges at the game and other fan-related events as part of its three-year sponsorship deal with the Orange Bowl Committee. In a letter to the Orange Bowl Committee and the NCAA, leaders from 10 health organizations -- including Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Cancer Society -- bowl officials were asked to cancel the contract with the cigar company.

Tobacco company rep David Howard waxes enthusiastic when he talks about a new product his employer, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., has developed: a pellet of finely cured tobacco, binders and flavoring that dissolves in the mouth in 10 minutes. Under test market in two U.S. cities — Denver and Charlotte, N.C. — Camel Orbs will join two dissolvable tobacco lozenges already on the market if it graduates to broader distribution. And Howard is optimistic it will. "These products provide smokers with an option to enjoy the pleasure of nicotine without bothering others," Howard said.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Monday that it will act to ensure the government's right to impose marketing, manufacturing and safety restrictions on "electronic cigarettes," a nicotine delivery device widely billed as an alternative to cigarettes for those trying to quit and for smokers who can't light up. In a letter posted to the FDA's website Monday, Dr. Lawrence R. Deyton, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products,...

It's not often a tobacco company gets released from government regulation without asking. But that's apparently what happened to Star Scientific Inc. after it asked the Food and Drug Administration to treat two versions of its smokeless, dissolvable tobacco lozenges as "modified risk" because they contain lower levels of carcinogens than other tobacco products. The FDA responded that the products aren't considered smokeless tobacco at all and don't come under the 2009 tobacco law, according to a Star Scientific announcement on Wednesday.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel says the removal of menthol cigarettes from the U.S. market would benefit public health. The agency's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee on Friday said the minty smokes hurt public health and offer no benefits. It was unclear whether the panel is recommending an outright ban of the cigarettes that are a key area for growth in the shrinking cigarette market. Many panels like the tobacco committee advise the FDA on scientific issues.

LONDON — Britain's Department of Health announced a ban on displaying cigarettes in stores around the country on Thursday, the nation's annual "no smoking day. " The action relegates cigarettes to a product kept below the counter. The new law will be introduced gradually, according to a statement from the health agency. It says that in large stores and supermarkets, the visible display of cigarettes, cigars and tobacco products will be illegal from April 2012, while in smaller stores it goes into force in 2015, "except for temporary displays in certain limited circumstances.

It's not often a tobacco company gets released from government regulation without asking. But that's apparently what happened to Star Scientific Inc. after it asked the Food and Drug Administration to treat two versions of its smokeless, dissolvable tobacco lozenges as "modified risk" because they contain lower levels of carcinogens than other tobacco products. The FDA responded that the products aren't considered smokeless tobacco at all and don't come under the 2009 tobacco law, according to a Star Scientific announcement on Wednesday.

The City Council on Tuesday will consider adopting a law regulating the sale and display of tobacco products. The law would aim to reduce the sales of tobacco products to minors by prohibiting an unattended display of tobacco products unless they were in a locked display case. It would also require vendors to check the ages of prospective tobacco purchasers.

Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner who announced his retirement earlier this month, will kick off a state ballot initiative campaign in Los Angeles on Monday for a measure that would direct hundreds of millions of dollars toward cancer research by levying an additional $1 tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. Organizers of the initiative known as the California Cancer Research Act, which was spearheaded by former state Senate leader Don Perata, gathered more than 433,000 signatures last year to qualify for the next statewide ballot, which is scheduled for February 2012.