Police are investigating the use of harmful herbicide on seedlings
By Martha Quillin - McClatchy Newspapers

LEE COUNTY, N.C. –In a quarter-century of farming, John Gross has taken his licks from weather and the markets, but this is the first time he has felt personally under attack.

Gross said someone broke into his Lee County greenhouse last month and sprayed herbicide on his tobacco seedlings, killing the entire crop of nearly 1 million tiny plants. The loss is not covered by insurance.

“It may have been done out of jealousy, I don’t know,” said Gross, a fifth-generation farmer. “I do know I haven’t made nobody mad - nowhere near mad enough to do something like that.”
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Whirlpool has suspended 39 factory workers who were caught smoking or chewing tobacco after they claimed to be nonsmokers on insurance forms.

The Chicago Tribune says Whirlpool employees who don’t smoke receive a $500 discount on their health insurance premiums.

The “nonsmokers” who were seen using tobacco products outside the company’s refrigerator plant aren’t being paid pending the outcome of “fact-finding meetings” that will determine whether or not they get to keep their jobs.
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Eleven major retailers and two tobacco manufacturers are facing an investigation over allegations of unlawful cigarette pricing practices.

Tobacco giants Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher were named alongside chains including supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda in a “statement of objections” issued by the Office of Fair Trading.

The consumer affairs watchdog has accused the groups of anti-competitive pricing, alleging that firms co-ordinated to link the price of some brands to rival products and separately that some of those named arranged to swap information on future pricing.
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WASHINGTON, April 23  /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Ohio leaders should fund a proposed economic stimulus plan by increasing state tobacco taxes instead of raiding tobacco prevention funds, recommends a report released today by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. In addition to raising revenue, this tobacco tax alternative would reduce smoking, save lives and save money by reducing health care costs, while the proposed raid of tobacco prevention funds would have the opposite effect — in fact, it would result in 23,200 more Ohioans dying prematurely from smoking and nearly $1 billion more in health care costs, according to the report.
A 75-cent per pack increase in the cigarette tax, combined with a parallel increase in the tax on other tobacco products, would raise $390.8 million in the first year alone. That’s enough to replace both the $230 million that Governor Ted Strickland and legislative leaders have proposed taking from the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation to help pay for the economic stimulus plan and to increase annual funding for the Foundation’s tobacco prevention programs to the amount recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ($145 million a year, compared to current funding of $44.7 million).
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The American Wholesale Marketers Association (AWMA) and the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) this week issued a joint letter to all 435 U.S. Representatives explaining serious concerns both national organizations have with the pending bill in Congress to grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco products.

“While a number of companies and organizations have recently changed their positions and decided to support this bill, we remain vigorously opposed to it,” said AWMA President Scott Ramminger in a prepared statement. He noted that AWMA members will be taking this message directly to their elected officials on May 7 and 8 when they are in Washington, D.C. for the annual AWMA Day on the Hill program.
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Attorney General Jack Conway announced that Kentucky, as required under the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between the major tobacco manufacturers and 52 states and territories, will receive its annual payment of more than $115 million in tobacco settlement money this week.

“My office continues to enforce the agreement and to make sure that Kentucky receives the money it’s owed from the agreement that provides funding for many invaluable programs – from agriculture to education,” Conway said.

Under the MSA, the tobacco companies agreed to make annual payments in perpetuity to the settling states, to fund a national foundation dedicated to significantly reducing the use of tobacco products by youth and to abide by certain restrictions on promotional and lobbying activity. Kentucky’s share of the settlement is approximately $3.45 billion over the first 25 years.
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By ANGELE MARAJ
Special to the Herald

When most people hear the term “SWAT,” they tend to think of a well-trained group of law enforcement officers with fancy weapons in highly dangerous situations.

While the mission of the student group SWAT may not be as dangerous, it is equally important.

SWAT stands for Students Working Against Tobacco, a group with the noble purpose of discouraging tobacco use in order to save lives, and Palmetto High School currently has the only SWAT group in all of Manatee County.

The inception of this PHS group can first be accredited to Donna Pasko, a former tobacco user and current Palmetto High School nurse.

“I was a smoker,” stated Pasko, revealing that she smoked for about 20 years. “I started in high school - (back then) it was cool. We had smoking circles, parents smoked. It was just a part of the culture.”
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CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

COLUMBUS — Ten years ago, Ohio won the tobacco lottery.

It was among 46 states to join a lawsuit accusing tobacco producers of using unfair advertising to get smokers addicted to nicotine. Smelling bankruptcy, 11 tobacco companies and industry trade groups settled instead — promising the states $260 billion in payments, spread out over 25 years.

Bob Taft, as the newly elected governor, persuaded the state Legislature to budget nearly half of Ohio’s $10 billion share of the multistate settlement for school construction projects — the state remained entangled in a major lawsuit over school funding at the time — and the other half for anti-smoking programs sponsored by the a new Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation.

But years of successive raids on the tobacco foundation — mostly to balance the state budget — have depleted its original $330 million endowment.

Now the fund, once envisioned to last a lifetime — and with a track record of slashing smoking rates — will be snuffed out within two years, its caretakers say.
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The state is seeking project proposals to help curb tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure among 18-24 year olds.
The Department of Health and Hospitals’ Tobacco Control Program will fund three $30,000 grants to organizations for projects that target the age group.

Interested organizations must submit a letter of intent by April 22 and grant applications are due May 23.

Proposed projects should address tobacco-related disparities such as prevalence of tobacco use, second-hand smoke exposure, relapse rates, access to prevention and cessation programs and tobacco industry marketing.
According to Gerrelda Davis, Interim Director of the Bureau of Primary Care and Rural Health, the funds are specifically aimed at developing community-based interventions for young people entering the workforce or vocational, community and trade schools.

“It is important to address tobacco prevention and cessation among this age group because these young people are particularly vulnerable tobacco industry marketing,” stated Davis in a press release. “Currently, 28 percent of these young people are smokers and more than 30 percent are uninsured. This means that they have limited access to health care and tobacco cessation interventions.”
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Starting this month, every cigarette sold in Kentucky must be fire-safe. The cigarettes feature special technology to help prevent fires, but some customers feel like they’re the ones getting burned.Advertisement

“It’s got little rings around it in a couple of spots,” said Josh Hubbard, as he pointed to a fire-safe cigarette in the parking lot of Butch’s in Williamsburg, Kentucky.

Paper rings act like speed bumps, slowing the burn of the cigarette. Keep puffing to keep it lit. Stop, and it burns out.

“I do understand why they did it, as a safety precaution,” said Katie West. “I think that was good, but the cigarettes don’t taste near as good as they used to.”
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