Newsletter  June, 2003

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Former NYC smokers choose New Jersey

NEW YORK - The citywide smoking ban has not driven people who enjoyed a smoke in local bars to quit smoking _ it's just driven them across the Hudson River.

Whereas the Greater New York chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association says business is down in bars and eateries where patrons could once smoke cigarettes, business is up in spots in New Jersey where smokers are welcome, The Daily News reported in Monday editions.
Alison Bank, 31, a hospitality specialist for a midtown hotel said she now usually makes plans to go straight to Hoboken, N.J., right after work.
"I don't want to have to stand outside if I want to smoke a cigarette," she said.
At Hoboken's 8th Street Tavern, business has jumped by 20 percent since New York City banned indoor smoking on March 30.
Chuck Hunt, executive director of the restaurant association said the ban causing people to go to New Jersey to smoke "is only making things worse."
Still legislators in New Jersey are presently working on a similar bill that would put out cigarettes there as well.
But for now, patrons and business owners see crossing the border as a winning proposition.
"This is a hard business, but the ban in New York is helping us," said Francis McMahon, who owns McMahon's Brownstone Alehouse.

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Sparks fly over health contracts proposal

LONDON - By Corinne Amoo - Chain smokers and the overweight may be asked to sign contracts promising to lead healthier lives in return for medical treatment under plans being considered by the government.
The contracts would set out patients’ responsibilities and offer them help to cut down or quit smoking, lose weight, take more exercise or eat a more nutritious diet.
Patients would receive treatment in return for following the doctors’ advice, according to the theory.
Those who fell by the wayside would not actually be turned away but the mere idea has prompted predictions of the demise of the National Health Service (NHS).
"The NHS was founded on the principle that you do not discriminate on people on the basis of lifestyle," a spokeswoman for the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco said on Tuesday..
"If people are forced to give up smoking or lose weight before they see a doctor it will signal the death of the NHS."
Even doctors themselves are unenthusiastic.
"This idea amounts to a bureaucratic nightmare," said Dr John Chisholm, chairman of the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee.
"The proposals seem to threaten the doctor-patient relationship and potentially even to deny people the free care to which I believe they are entitled," he added in a statement.
A Labour Party spokesman denied any intention to withdraw treatment.
"The consultation document covers the shared rights and responsibilities between the NHS and patients. It is not about restricting treatment or making treatment conditional," he said.
The agreement would take the form of a joint statement of "mutual good intent," he added.
The proposals, which could become part of Labour’s manifesto at the next general election if ratified at the annual party conference are aimed at easing the pressures put on the NHS by avoidable illnesses such as smoking and bad diet.

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Blues' stop-smoking program shows results

Eighteen percent of participants in a stop-smoking program run by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota gave up cigarettes and were still not smoking a full year after completing the program. Eagan-based Blue Cross said the 18 percent success rate compares favorably with the national success rate of 2.5 percent.
The program is offered free to its members by the health insurer and is paid for by Blue Cross. Spokeswoman Monika Strom said the company received money from the settlement of the lawsuit against leading tobacco companies five years ago, but that money is locked up while a lawsuit filed by some Blue Cross Blue Shield members who want a share of the money winds its way through the courts.
The "Blueprint for Health" stop-smoking program was set up in June 2000 and had 17,000 participants through May of this year. A survey of 1,496 people who went through the program showed that 42.9 percent who wanted to quit smoking permanently, actually achieved their goal, 22.8 percent who intended to quit within a month of enrollment did indeed do so. Of the 13.6 percent planning to quit in one to six months from enrollment, did stop, and 5.9 percent who indicated that they weren't going to quit within the next six months actually did quit, nontheless.

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Cigarette Maker Ponders FDA Regulation

WASHINGTON - The nation's leading cigarette maker told lawmakers that it now supports Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco, which would allow the company to help market two products that may be less harmful than conventional cigarettes.
Philip Morris USA is leading the push for FDA regulation, though it fought such a move in the past.
At a separate hearing, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona said he would support banning tobacco products, but it would be up to Congress to take such a step.
Mike Szymanczyk, the company's chief executive, told a House Government Reform subcommittee that FDA oversight could more effectively enable Philip Morris to market two new products it is developing that could be less harmful to smokers than existing cigarettes.
One is a cigarette that the company believes has fewer of the harmful substances found in current brands. The other is a cigarette-like device in which tobacco is electrically heated.
The FDA asserted jurisdiction over tobacco and sought to crack down on cigarette sales to minors in 1996, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the agency needed congressional approval.
Philip Morris is backing legislation by Reps. Tom Davis, R-Va., and Mike McIntyre, D-N.C., that would allow the FDA to regulate tobacco. Health advocates want FDA regulation but say the bill backed by Philip Morris is too weak.
"Philip Morris wants a government stamp of approval on their next generation of so-called reduced-risk tobacco products," said Bill Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "They want FDA to have authority that is so weak it will not change the status quo."
Specifically, Corr said the Davis-McIntyre bill would not go far enough to shield children from cigarette ads and would not give the government enough power to order the removal of harmful substances from cigarettes.
At a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. sought the ability to claim in ads that smokeless tobacco products are safer than cigarettes.
The Connecticut-based company, which makes snuff, also has asked the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates false and deceptive advertising, to consider its request.
"Such communication will help adult smokers make more informed choices," company vice president Richard Verheij told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee at a separate hearing.
Verheij pointed to studies in Europe that say snuff and chewing tobacco are less harmful than cigarettes.
Carmona, the surgeon general, was skeptical.
"I don't think they have enough scientific data to justify making that statement," Carmona said of one British study.
Congress passed a law in 1986 requiring the placement of surgeon general's warnings on all smokeless tobacco products. That followed the release of a government report that concluded smokeless tobacco causes cancer and other diseases and is not a safer substitute for cigarette smoking.
Carmona said that recommendation should stand, but some Republican lawmakers said it seemed too rigid.
"For those smokers who can't seem to quit smoking, switching to a less hazardous product could save lives," said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla.

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