GREAT BARRINGTON — Stiffer penalties are in the works for local stores that get caught selling tobacco to minors, and store clerks who make the sale also will be fined, if a new regulation is passed by the Board of Health next week.
The new regulations, which need a majority vote by the three-member Board of Health to go into effect, also will require anyone who sells tobacco to become “certified” by the Tri-Town Health Department’s Tobacco Awareness Program.

“Our whole effort is in reducing (tobacco) access to minors,” said Peter J. Kolodziej, Tri-Town Health Department’s director.

Summer enforcements

Kolodziej said Pittsfield and Monterey already have amended their tobacco sale regulations, and the towns of Egremont, Lenox, Lee and Stockbridge are in the process of amending theirs. The new rules will be enforced beginning this summer, and retailers will have six months to get their employees certified after the amendments are passed.
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NEW YORK, Feb 27, 2008 (PR Newswire Europe via COMTEX) — U.S. District Court Allows Claims Brought by Swiss-Based In-House Counsel To Proceed against Altria Group, Inc. and Phillip Morris International, Inc.

Broach & Stulberg, LLP announced today that U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has denied motions to dismiss age discrimination and retaliation claims brought by a Swiss-based former in-house counsel against Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO: 74.91, +1.08, +1.46%) and Philip Morris International, Inc. (collectively “Phillip Morris”). The motions sought to dismiss the claims on the ground that the U.S. court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the allegations brought under the U.S. Age Discrimination in Employment Act (”ADEA”).

Applying a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to a case claiming extra-territorial application of the federal age discrimination law, the District Judge ruled that “defendants have failed to raise a meritorious issue as to lack of subject matter jurisdiction” pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1).
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Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — Mexico’s Senate approved a law that requires restaurants and bars to set up non-smoking areas and limits advertising by tobacco companies.

Under the measure, businesses must get a license to sell tobacco and all enclosed public places have 180 days to create non-smoking sections. The law also prohibits tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events and will only allow ads in areas where children aren’t present, such as bars.

The bill, endorsed by President Felipe Calderon, aims to eliminate youth smoking and reduce the potential harm of second-hand smoke. About 60,000 Mexicans die every year from diseases associated with smoking, said Ernesto Saro, president of the Senate’s Health Committee.
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Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — The tobacco industry lost a U.S. Supreme Court bid aimed at limiting damage awards in more than 700 West Virginia lawsuits filed by smokers who say cigarettes gave them cancer and other diseases.

The justices, without comment, today left intact a trial plan that Altria Group Inc.’s Philip Morris USA unit and other cigarette makers said will lead to unconstitutional awards of punitive damages. The approach calls for a jury to consider common issues, including the availability of punitive damages, before separate trials are held on individual cases.

“Defense counsel will be wholly unable to defend against plaintiffs’ amorphous claim for punitive damages,” the cigarette makers argued in their unsuccessful appeal, filed in Washington. In addition to Philip Morris, Reynolds America Inc.’s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Loews Corp.’s Lorillard Tobacco Co. urged the Supreme Court to intervene.
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Delivering cigarettes purchased online by juveniles has become easier because of a unanimous ruling this week by the U.S. Supreme Court. Federal legislation is needed to address the concerns and effectively make such transactions difficult if not impossible.
The high court struck down parts of a Maine state law barring Internet or other mail-order tobacco sales to minors that required delivery companies to intercept packages from unlicensed tobacco sellers and verify the age of buyers. More than 30 states have such laws, but federal law prohibits states from regulating prices, routes or services of shipping companies.

Hawaii’s law prohibits selling or furnishing tobacco products to minors but does not specify measures to be required of delivery companies. “Despite the importance of the public health objective, we cannot agree” with Maine’s requirements, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote. Permitting such requirements in Maine “could easily lead to a patchwork state service-determining laws, rules and regulations,” he added.
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Hotels are starting to to hit smokers with hefty fines for violating their no smoking policies. Take Dan Cole. He didn’t light up in his non-smoking Marriott room, honest. Those butts in his garbage can? Um, he smoked them somewhere else and threw them out in the room?

It costs Marriott over $1,000 to scrub the smoke-stink off a room, a charge they happily offset by smacking smokers like Dan with a $250 fine.
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Illegal sales of tobacco to Columbia County youths went down significantly in 2007, a survey has found.

Sales of tobacco to young people across the state hit an all-time low, with a 2007 sales survey showing a noncompliance rate of 4.5 percent. That compares with 5.5 percent in 2006, the previous low. The noncompliance rate was as high as nearly 34 percent in 2001.

Columbia County’s noncompliance rate was 14 percent in 2007, down from 23 percent in 2006. Noncompliance was 29 percent in 2003, the first year the Synar report was done in the county.

The survey is named for former U.S. Rep. Michael Synar, an Oklahoma Democrat who sponsored federal legislation leading to the report. The survey looks at retail outlets that sell tobacco illegally to minors younger than age 18. Retail outlets are picked at random.
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PEMBROKE — Lumbee leaders want to stub out any idea that the tribe has ties to a new cigarette that bears its name.

Lumbee cigarettes have been available in Robeson County stores since December.

Tribal leaders say they don’t like it, but they haven’t figured out if they can do anything to stop the company from using the tribe’s name.

What the tribe can do is get the word out that Lumbees don’t have anything to do with the menthol cigarettes. They don’t want anyone buying the smokes thinking they are supporting the tribe.

Tribal members have inquired about the association of the cigarette brand with the Lumbee tribe, said Tribal Chairman Jimmy Goins.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The iconic Camel cigarette pack has undergone its first makeover since it hit store shelves almost a century ago, as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. tests new ways to market its biggest brands in a lagging market for smokes.

Though the enduring image of the Camel has not changed in the updated packaging, the animal is surrounded by a fresh look — rounded graphics to highlight the oasis scene, larger and clearer pyramids in the distance, darker lettering emphasizing the Camel name, and color-coded ribbons to identify the style.

The box also touts the brand’s history: “Since 1913.”

“The challenge was taking something that was an iconic brand — a sort of flagship — and giving it a more modern look and feel,” said David Howard, a spokesman for the Winston-Salem-based tobacco company. “The challenge is to do that while respecting and not losing site of the rich heritage of the brand.”

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Proposal would give FDA power over cigarette industry
By Deanese Williams-Harris | Tribune reporter
February 21, 2008
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Wednesday called on Congress to support a measure designed to give the Food and Drug Administration power to oversee the tobacco industry.

“Tobacco is the only product in America that is not regulated,” Durbin said. “It’s time for us to restrict their marketing techniques because their target is our kids.”
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