tobacco companies

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

One Cigarette Can Kill You: Surgeon General

And cigarettes today are designed to be more addictive

(Newser) - Even a single cigarette can cause immediate damage to your very DNA, while inflaming tissue and leading to illness and death, the surgeon general said today in the office’s first report on tobacco in four years. “Tobacco smoke damages almost every organ in your body,” Surgeon General...

Kids Toil in Philip Morris' Tobacco Fields

 Kids Toil, Get Sick 
 in Philip Morris 
 Tobacco Fields 
human rights watch report
Jul 14, 2010 7:36 AM CDT

Kids Toil, Get Sick in Philip Morris Tobacco Fields

Children absorb nicotine equivalent to 36 cigarettes a day

(Newser) - In the tobacco fields that supply a Philip Morris factory in Kazakhstan, child laborers as young as 10 encounter such high doses of nicotine that they feel dizzy, vomit, and develop rashes on their necks and stomachs, a condition known as "green tobacco sickness." Other migrant tobacco workers...

Big Tobacco Sues Over 'Disgusting' Anti-Smoking Posters

Firms seek to quash graphic NYC ads

(Newser) - Images of cancerous lungs, rotting teeth, and brain damage caused by smoking are "unappetizing," complain lawyers for tobacco companies suing New York City. RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris, and Lorillard are taking the city to court over anti-smoking ads that stores selling cigarettes are now legally required to post...

Banned From Using 'Light,' Big Tobacco Turns to Colors

Critics say 'Marlboro Gold' no better than 'Marlboro Light,' and sneakier

(Newser) - The tobacco industry has to remove words like “light” on its cigarette packaging come June, but what they plan to do instead—use colors—has health advocates just as piqued. “They’re circumventing the law,” a professor tells the New York Times of moves like Philip Morris’...

NY Senate Race Gets Ugly Fast
 NY Senate Race Gets Ugly Fast 
Jan 26, 2010 11:34 AM CST

NY Senate Race Gets Ugly Fast

Incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand, challenger Harold Ford Jr. out for blood

(Newser) - Kirsten Gillibrand isn’t playing nice anymore. The New York Democrat is heeding advisers’ counsel and going for the jugular against Senate primary opponent Harold Ford Jr., who’s been lobbing bombs faster than she can keep up. Until now, Gillibrand’s mostly attacked Ford through proxies, generating little buzz...

Why Can't We Tell the Truth About Snuff?
Why Can't We Tell the Truth About Snuff?
OPINION
Jan 12, 2010 1:46 PM CST

Why Can't We Tell the Truth About Snuff?

It's safer, but the government won't let manufacturers tell you that.

(Newser) - Chewing tobacco has its share of health risks, but it’s 10 to 1,000 times safer than cigarettes, according to one British Royal College of Physicians report. The reason is obvious: chewers are not actually inhaling smoke into their lungs. “The Royal College of Physicians can tell you...

Aussies May Charge $20 Per Pack of Ciggies

(Newser) - Australians may be coughing up $20 for a pack of cigarettes if officials approve a new anti-smoking plan, the Age reports. The proposal, designed to cut Aussie smoking by a third, would ban all tobacco sponsorship and online sales, devote 95% of cigarette packaging to graphic health warnings, and tax...

Tobacco Bill's Winners: Philip Morris, Lawyers
Tobacco Bill's Winners: Philip Morris, Lawyers
OPINION
Jun 18, 2009 7:55 AM CDT

Tobacco Bill's Winners: Philip Morris, Lawyers

We're smoking less because it's dumb, not because of policy: Will

(Newser) - President Obama might have praised Congress' tobacco bill, but for George F. Will, the new legislation gives just two muscular groups reason to celebrate: Philip Morris and "the Democratic Party's fountain of funds, the trial bar." New restrictions on cigarette advertising will help Philip Morris vault over competitors,...

Cigarette Companies Lied, Appeals Court Rules

(Newser) - Tobacco companies engaged in “deceits” and knowingly marketed cigarettes without regard for consumers’ health, violating civil racketeering laws, a federal appeals court ruled today. In upholding the verdict in a landmark case brought by the Clinton Justice Department in 1999, the court refused to overturn a district judge’s...

Big Tobacco Suffers Big Setbacks in DC

Despite massive lobbying, regulation looks likely to pass

(Newser) - After years of winning its fights in Washington, Big Tobacco is steeling itself for a major defeat: Not only did Congress pass an excise tax hike of 62 cents a pack of cigarettes, which went into effect this week, but the House voted overwhelmingly to submit the industry to FDA...

Smokers Gasp at Highest Tax Hike Ever

They're hit twice as companies boost their profits, too

(Newser) - Smokers are feeling pinched by today's 62-cent hike in the federal cigarette tax, the biggest ever. Federal taxes now top $1 per pack, CNN reports. At the same time, manufacturers and retailers have raised prices to boost dwindling profits. "They're picking on smokers," an 83-year-old said of the...

Florida Jury Awards $8M to Smoker's Family

Philip Morris vows to appeal verdict

(Newser) - Philip Morris must pay $8 million to the widow and son of a 55-year-old lung cancer victim, a Florida jury says. Jurors in the closely watched case decided that the cigarette maker hid the health risks and addictive qualities of cigarettes, the Miami Herald reports. Stuart Hess smoked about two...

Addiction Led to Smoker's Death: Jury

Widow scores first blood in potentially groundbreaking trial

(Newser) - Addiction to cigarettes caused chain smoker Stuart Hess’ death from lung cancer, a Florida jury ruled yesterday, paving the way for his widow to receive damages from Phillip Morris. The case is the first of 8,000 to spin out of a landmark 1994 class-action suit. That case's $145 billion...

In Court, Philip Morris Uses Civil-Rights Smokescreen

Tobacco giant plays civil-rights card in battle with Oregon court over $79M judgment

(Newser) - Philip Morris has cast itself as a civil-rights victim being denied due process, Stephanie Mencimer writes for Mother Jones. The tobacco giant, ordered by an Oregon jury in 1999 to pay $79 million in punitive damages to a woman whose husband died of lung cancer, has been fighting the award...

High Court Appears Cool to Smokers' Suit

Marlboro ads make people really inhale, lawyers tell high court

(Newser) - Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical over a lawsuit against Philip Morris cigarette ads today, McClatchy reports. A group of Maine smokers claim that ads for Marlboro Lights are deceptive, saying the company knew smokers would inhale more deeply on them and draw in more chemicals. At stake is the power...

Profanity, Tobacco Cases Top Court's New Term

Judges to decide on consumers' right to sue drug, tobacco companies

(Newser) - The Supreme Court and its Bush-era conservative additions launch a second term today, set to consider "pre-emption" cases that determine whether federal regulation makes drug and tobacco companies immune from state-level lawsuits. Other cases will determine penalties against profanity on radio or TV, a major sexual harassment question, and...

Vintage Stars Got Big Bucks to Smoke

Big tobacco paid a fortune for promotion in Hollywood's golden age

(Newser) - Almost all of Hollywood's big names from the '30s, '40s, and '50s were on the payroll of tobacco companies, the BBC reports. Documents released as part of anti-smoking lawsuits reveal that stars like Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, and Joan Crawford got up to $10,000 each from Lucky Strike in...

Maker of Marlboros May Buy Skoal for $10B

(Newser) - The nation’s largest cigarette maker, Altria Group, is in talks to acquire UST, the producer of Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobaccos for a rumored $10 billion, the New York Times reports. Altria, a spinoff of Philip Morris, makes Marlboro cigarettes. Negotiators were poised to strike a deal over the...

House Votes to Let FDA Regulate Tobacco

Cigarettes would be controlled by FDA

(Newser) - The House passed landmark legislation yesterday to bring the tobacco industry under the regulatory control of the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA wouldn't have the power to ban cigarettes under the bill, but it could order nicotine levels in cigarettes reduced and restrict other harmful ingredients, reports the New ...

Menthol Debate Splits Black Caucus
Menthol Debate Splits Black Caucus
Jul 25, 2008 2:28 AM CDT

Menthol Debate Splits Black Caucus

Tobacco row erupts over exemption from cigarette flavoring ban

(Newser) - The exemption of menthol from a bill banning flavored cigarettes is causing a rift in the Black Congressional Caucus, the New York Times reports. Some members of the caucus, which has strong financial ties to tobacco companies, argue that menthol cigarettes cause disproportionate harm to blacks and are pushing for...

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>