Tobacco

Federal inspectors test imported tobacco for only a fraction of the toxic pesticides that are banned for use on U.S. crops, according to a General Accounting Office report released yesterday. GAO investigators recommended more complete testing, but they noted that the Environmental Protection Agency and many health experts say the risks from pesticide residues on tobacco are minimal compared with the other hazards of smoking. "When you smoke tobacco, you are exposed to so many more potent carcinogens than any pesticide," said Mirjana Djordjevic, a bio-analytical chemist at the National Cancer Institute's tobacco-control branch.

About a month ago, an article by Ron Wolf appeared under the headline "A new pitch for tobacco: Jobs, GNP. " I could not respond sooner as I read the article in a hospital bed where I was being treated for lung cancer. It is tough to understand any society as advanced and sophisticated as ours fostering the cannibalistic nature of the tobacco industry. It literally says in this reported study by Chase Econometrics that it is OK to feed the gross national product and employment needs with the human flesh tobacco destroys.

"WARNING: Smoking is addictive. Once you start, you may not be able to stop. " That's the warning label for cigarette packages that Sen. Bill Bradley (D., N.J.) has just proposed. It should be enacted into law after being amended to include Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's even more explicit warning that nicotine is "as addictive as heroin or cocaine. " That may strike the tobacco industry as a scare tactic, and that's just what it is. If it works, it may scare thousands of people into saving their lives.

It used to be said that North Carolina coach Dean Smith had more All- Americas on his bench than most teams had on their entire roster. There was a time Smith could simply out-talent opponents into submission. The prep All-America pipeline to Chapel Hill, N.C., extended from every corridor of the country. Flashing a UNC I.D. card virtually guaranteed an instant invitation into the home of any high school hotshot who even dreamed of dribbling a basketball on a college campus.

The tobacco industry has sharply increased its contributions to the Democratic and Republican Parties since 1991, according to a report released yesterday by advocacy groups. The study also reported that aides to presidential candidates Bill Clinton and George Bush have close ties to the tobacco industry, and that the industry was pursuing government policies aimed at keeping tobacco largely unregulated. The report, released by the Public Citizen's Health Research Group and the Advocacy Institute, contended that the government's failure to limit tobacco sales had hurt the economy, driven up health-care costs and crippled the American family with tobacco-related illnesses.

Here in the homeland of tobacco, where the golden leaf built the churches, the universities and the museums, North Carolinians have often rushed to defend their state's beloved crop. But as the tobacco industry and the state battle in court to stop federal regulation of tobacco, home-grown critics of smoking's health risks are shouting to be heard. The reason for their frustration? These North Carolinians say state leaders have long highlighted tobacco's monetary spoils and ignored its expensive ills.

To the probable misfortune of Pennsylvanians, Common Pleas Court Judge John W. Herron made an expeditious decision yesterday to deny very credible parties - representing Allegheny County, 17 hospitals and public interest groups - the right to challenge parts of the $206 billion national settlement with the tobacco industry. Judges in some states have allowed outside petitioners to intervene, or they have altered terms of the settlement. The petitioners should waste no time in appealing Judge Herron's decision.

Want to hear a good joke? The other day I passed a colorful billboard advertising cigarettes: Two very attractive young people - a handsome man and a beautiful woman - were laughing and having a wonderful time together, and in large letters the billboard proclaimed, "Alive with Pleasure. " Don't you get it? Let me give you a hint. Tobacco, mostly in the form of cigarettes, kills 434,000 people every year. How about this one? I recently heard a tobacco industry spokesperson say that if taxes on cigarettes are raised, cigarette consumption will drop, and that will put a lot of people out of work, people like convenience store clerks.

Bombarded with criticism from medical doctors and ministers, SEPTA's board is trying to undo a decision to permit tobacco and alcohol ads on SEPTA buses, subways and other property. Just a month ago, the financially strapped transit agency approved a deal with Transportation Displays Inc., of New York City, allowing TDI to sell advertising space on SEPTA vehicles and stations, with SEPTA to pocket 55 percent of all revenues - as much as $3 million a year. After a heated discussion last month, the board decided to permit advertising of tobacco and alcohol, but at no more than 20 percent of the total.

There is big news in the War on Smoking. The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the cigarette industry, boldly charging that the industry was lying - and KNEW it was lying - when it claimed that it never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky. Whoops! Wrong lie! The Justice Department is charging that for many years, the tobacco industry, on purpose, did not tell people that cigarettes were bad for them. To cite just one blatant example, on numerous documented occasions during the 1950s and 1960s, R.J. Reynolds deliberately failed to run an advertising campaign using the slogan: "Winston Tastes Good, AND Gives You Lung Cancer!"

WASHINGTON - Tobacco companies will be required to report the levels of dangerous chemicals found in cigarettes, chew, and other products under the latest rules designed to tighten regulation of the industry. The preliminary guidance issued Friday by the Food and Drug Administration marks the first time tobacco makers will be required to report quantities of 20 chemicals associated with cancer, lung disease, and other health problems. The FDA will require companies to display the information in a consumer-friendly format by next April.

Widener University students make all kinds of decisions about their lives, from how much to drink at parties to whether to show up for classes. But there's one decision the school has made for them: No using tobacco. Not on campus. Last year, Widener became the first four-year school in Pennsylvania to go not just smoke-free but tobacco-free, adopting a simple, stringent policy: No cigarettes, no cigars, no cigarillos, no pipes, no hookahs, no pinch between the cheek and gum. Nowhere, no time, no how. The rule also applies to faculty and staff, and to visitors and contractors, banning tobacco use even in personal cars or work trucks that drive onto campus.

TRENTON - New Jersey raised $750 million last year from taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products, but it spent only $1.5 million on antismoking programs, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Cancer Society. Health advocates on Wednesday called on Gov. Christie and the Legislature to direct at least a dime of each dollar the state collects in tobacco taxes to programs aimed at reducing youth smoking and helping tobacco users quit. "The money is there.

One might think that smoking bans in city parks and that graphic cigarette-pack labels coming from Washington represent the extreme of government meddling. But with statistics showing that smoking remains the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths, the Philadelphia Board of Health is considering a proposal that pushes the envelope on tobacco control: mandatory, illustrated signs on the health effects of smoking placed on the counters of every tobacco retailer in the city. It's not at all clear that the idea, still in draft form, would pass legal muster.

Tobacco retailers are fuming after City Council passed a bill yesterday requiring them to obtain permits to sell tobacco and other products containing nicotine. The bill, which Mayor Nutter is expected to sign, mandates that tobacco retailers get a $50 permit from the Health Department in addition to the city business-privilege license and the cigarette-retailer license that vendors must acquire from the state Revenue Department. This latest measure will give the city a list of Philadelphia's tobacco retailers to ensure that they are following the law. "We've had problems with these small stores, neighborhood stores, selling loose cigarettes and selling these cigarettes and tobacco to young people," said Councilwoman Marian Tasco, who introduced the bill.

Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner will hold the last in a series of public hearings to discuss the use of tobacco-settlement funds on Thursday in Philadelphia. In a report two months ago, Wagner said that a 2001 law required that all tobacco money - nearly $10 billion over 25 years - go to various health-related programs, particularly adultBasic insurance coverage for low-income working people. Thirty percent of all tobacco money has been diverted over the years by annual budget agreements, he said.

A Commonwealth Court judge on Thursday denied a petition to freeze millions in tobacco-settlement money that had been paying for a health-insurance program but that Gov. Corbett is now directing to the state's general fund. Pennsylvania is expected to get an estimated $370 million in tobacco-settlement funds, and a portion of it was to help pay for adultBasic, which provided health insurance for people who do not qualify for Medicaid but who cannot afford private insurance. The program was projected to cost more than $160 million this fiscal year and was funded with tobacco money and donations from Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that also administer it. AdultBasic ran out of money at the end of February, and Corbett said the state could no longer afford it. He redirected the tobacco money, which comes via a 1998 settlement with cigarette companies, to the general fund.

HARRISBURG - Auditor General Jack Wagner is offering his solution to restore health insurance for the thousands who lost it when a state program for low-income workers ended this week: Return to the original funding source, the tobacco settlement fund. At a news conference Thursday, Wagner said the adultBasic insurance program ran out of money because its initial source of revenue had been diverted to other areas. He said Gov. Ed Rendell redirected a total of $1.3 billion, once set aside for health-related uses, to cover general budget holes and support other programs over five years.

It's good to see the boys of summer back on the baseball field. It will be even better if more players take the field without a pinch of chewing tobacco tucked under their lower lips. Sure, that puffed-out jaw of Lenny "Nails" Dykstra will live in the memory of every Phillies' fan who ever watched him tear up the base paths. And ballplayers' chewing habit goes back more than a century, to a time when baseball diamonds were dustier places - and a bit of "dip" helped keep the mouth moist.