Selling Tobacco To 14-Year-Old

A 14-year-old girl walks into a store and asks for a pack of cigarettes. She does not pretend to be 18.

On Dec. 6, the Farmington Police Department conducted unannounced compliance inspections of all the stores in town that sell discount cigarette online products. The periodic checks are made to find out if the stores are abiding by the state law prohibiting cigarettes online products from being sold to minors under 18.

Tuesday, police found just one out of Farmington’s 30 stores – CVS at 188 Main St., handed over the cigarettes to the 14-year-old, who was working in cooperation with the police, according to a press release.

The CVS employee was issued an infraction under the state’s Sale of Tobacco to Minors law and fined $200. The store may also face administrative functions from the Department of Revenue Service, the state agency that issues Cigarette Dealer licenses, according to the release.

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Dissolvable Tobacco Products Appealing To Women

Adult female buy cigarette online users have proven an elusive consumer group for manufacturers' smokeless/smokefree products, particularly — and especially — if they involve spitting.

However, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. reported recently its Camel dissolvable cheap cigarette online products, which do not require spitting, are gaining traction with females in its test markets of Charlotte and Denver.

Reynolds said the flavored, finely milled discount cigarettes products serve as an alternative to cigarettes, giving adults a discreet option in venues where smoking cigarettes is banned out of concern for secondhand smoke cigarettes exposure.

Reynolds' dissolvable products include:

* Camel Sticks, a stick of pulverized tobacco, with flavoring, similar in shape to a toothpick.

* Camel Strips, tobacco film strips that dissolve in the mouth.

* Camel Orbs, similar in shape to Tic Tacs.

Of the adult smokers who bought Camel Sticks, Camel Strips and Camel Orbs in the test markets during September and October, adult females represented 45 percent of the consumers, according to Reynolds. Of all tobacco consumers, 31 percent of the buyers were adult females.

By comparison, adult males constitute 85 percent of the users of moist snuff and Camel Snus.

"We have seen a noticeable appeal and interest of the dissolvable products with adult female tobacco consumers," Reynolds spokesman David Howard said.

Stephen Pope, an industry analyst and managing partner of Spotlight Ideas in England, said Reynolds may have discovered a niche with adult female tobacco users.

"Clearly the figures for the dissolvable products make for fascinating reading and actually show that here could be a product that, if handled correctly, could well offer an opportunity for a special female-targeted product that could be as significant as Virginia Slims was for Philip Morris," Pope said.

The dissolvable products "could prove to be the first viable smokeless tobacco products for females," wrote Bonnie Herzog, an analyst with Wells Fargo Securities LLC. During the early to mid-20th century, female consumption of dip snuff was fairly common in a more rural Triad.

The closest the dissolvable products are available to the Triad is Lake Norman and Mooresville. The products are sold in three mint styles, as well as a variety pack.

Reynolds has not said when the national roll-out of the products will happen.

The dissolvables could play a pivotal role for Reynolds' transformation into a "total tobacco company" that emphasizes smokeless tobacco sales as cigarette volumes continue to decline amid regulatory and societal pressures.

The transformation is daunting for Reynolds considering there are 42 million adult smokers in the United States compared with 8 million adults who consume moist snuff and 3 million adults who consume snus. Camel Snus, a spitless, smokeless tobacco, holds about 70 percent of the U.S. snus market share.

However, about 50 percent of the 1 million U.S. adults who successfully quit smoking cigarettes turn to smokeless products, Herzog wrote.

"The relative risk of these products vary greatly, with smoking cigarettes likely causing the most risk to consumers and dissolvables likely causing significantly less risk," she said.

"Over time, we expect the FDA will play a pivotal role for consumers as the relative risk of these products becomes public."

Howard said Reynolds has no plans to expand testing of the dissolvable products beyond Charlotte and Denver. Reynolds exited test markets in Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis; and Portland, Ore., after two years in December 2010.

Herzog's comments were part of an overall favorable review of Reynolds that also noted its productivity gains, the increasing popularity of its Camel Crush cigarette style and the growing niche for its Natural American Tobacco products, particularly internationally. Camel Crush has a capsule that can be squeezed to release more menthol flavoring.

"Bottom line, we believe Reynolds American has transformed itself into a much leaner, more focused, total tobacco company," Herzog said.

"Given the halo effect of Camel and Pall Mall's momentum, the company should be able to generate greater returns for shareholders."

Jeff Middleswart, portfolio manager for the Vice Fund of USA Mutuals, said having the Camel and Marlboro brands in dissolvable products is likely to intensify the debate among advocacy groups.

One set says that smokeless tobacco products serve as gateways for teenagers to cigarettes. The other set sees the products as a way to reduce the risk of tobacco use compared with cigarettes.

"Anything tobacco will create criticism — it's just the way of the world," Middleswart said. "A new product that has the potential to gain market share is going to be a target."

John Spangler, a professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said he found it "disturbing that any smokeless tobacco product is now becoming popular among women."

His concern is that the dissolvable products may encourage women to use smokeless tobacco for the first time.

"It is unclear if dissolvables will truly be harm-reducing on a population basis," Spangler said.

"For example, as many as half of smokeless tobacco users also smoke, providing evidence that, instead of aiding smokers to quit, smokeless tobacco actually helps users maintain their nicotine addiction in situations where smoking cigarettes is banned, such as work places, airplanes, etc."

"Then, when they are in situations where they can smoke cigarettes again, they will smoke cigarettes the same amount as previously."

Reynolds has marketed the appeal of smokeless products in those scenarios, to the point of conducting national and regional ad campaigns for Camel Snus timed for whenever a new smoking cigarettes ban goes into effect or with the recent Great American Smokeout.

The convenience factor of the dissolvable products, as well as potentially being less stigmatized in society, are likely to appeal to women, Pope said.

"The ability to light up or even dispose of a smokeless pouch is not so easy," Pope said. "The dissolvable product, perhaps with menthol or other flavored twists, has the potential to be a home-run product for the female segment."

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, has called on Reynolds to permanently pull the dissolvable products and to stop pushing tobacco products that he said enticed children and discouraged smokers from quitting.

Myers has said the dissolvable products appeal to children because they are easily concealed and colorfully packaged, shaped and flavored to resemble mints or gum.

Even though the Food and Drug Administration acknowledges Reynolds is targeting the dissolvable products at adults, legislators in some states are trying to ban them even though they are not sold there.

In October 2010, GlaxoSmithKline, which sells the nicotine-replacement therapy products Nicorette and NicoDerm, requested that the FDA take Reynolds' dissolvable products out of test markets.

"Smokeless tobacco products are currently being marketed without clear evidence of their safety," Glaxo said in a statement. The Reynolds products are being reviewed by the FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee.

Howard said Reynolds has made adjustments to the packaging, marketing and product mix of its dissolvable products.

"The packaging is now larger and looks more like packaging of other types of traditional tobacco products, and is a different color," Howard said. "The packaging still carries language 'keep this product out of the reach of children.' "

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City Council Considering Snuffing Out Smoke Shops

With a fourth smoke cigarettes shop in Tooele City opening last month, the Tooele City Council is now considering an ordinance restricting the location of new shops that specialize in cheap cigarettes and tobacco-related products.

Tooele City Council Chairman Scott Wardle requested that Roger Baker, city attorney, research and prepare a draft ordinance after Wardle noticed a smoke cigarettes shop opening at 80 W. Vine Street. The shop is less than one block from the city library and three blocks from Tooele High School, and that’s a problem, Wardle said.

“As its stands now, with no restrictions another smoke cigarettes shop could open up across from the USU campus or down at the Overlake roundabout next to an elementary and junior high school,” said Wardle. “That is just not acceptable.” The proposed ordinance is designed not to ban smoke cigarettes shops, but protect the community, according to Wardle.

“These places sell products that are detrimental to youth,” said Wardle. “Research indicates a link between these type of shops and an increase in use of discount cigarettes by youth. Locating smoke cigarettes shops near schools and public places is a way of marketing to our youth.”

The new ordinance would require that cheap cigarette online shops — defined as a shop that sells exclusively or primarily tobacco and tobacco products — be 1,500 hundred feet from schools, residences and public places such as parks and libraries. Existing smoke cigarettes shops would not be affected by the new ordinance.

Councilman Steve Pruden, who works as the director of the LDS Tooele Institute of Religion near Tooele High School, agrees with Wardle’s concern.

“We have an underage smoking cigarettes problem in Tooele. I see students trying to hide behind the Institute building and smoke cigarettes everyday,” said Pruden. “Kids have to walk by these places and they will see every day a message promoting tobacco use.”

And it’s not just tobacco that Wardle is concerned about.

“These places sell other products that are not good,” said Wardle. “The Legislature outlawed Spice, synthetic marijuana, but manufacturers of Spice have found a way around the law by changing the formula. Spice is now being sold again in smoke cigarettes shops.”

Councilman Mike Johnson was skeptical about the effectiveness of an ordinance restricting the location of smoke cigarettes shops.

“If kids want to get tobacco, they are going to find a way to get it,” said Johnson. “Shouldn’t our efforts be focused on education in the community, schools, and in the home?”

Johnson asked Baker to look into the legality of requiring people to be at least 18 years old to go into a smoke cigarettes shop.

Dave McCall, while not opposing the ordinance, urged caution regarding its wording.

“I think we have to be careful about directing what kind of business people can and can’t open up,” McCall said. “It is not that I disagree with the ordinance but we have to be careful about the wording, if we do this what is next?”

The city of Sandy has an ordinance restricting smoke cigarettes shops to areas zoned for industry, Baker said. Sandy is the only other city whose ordinance on smoke cigarettes shops Baker has examined.

State and city codes require establishments that serve or sell alcohol to be 200 feet in a straight line and 600 feet as a pedestrian would walk from a school, church or public place including parks, playgrounds, and libraries.Wardle said he plans to put the smoke cigarettes shop ordinance on the agenda for the Nov. 16 city council meeting.

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Tobacco Sales To Minors

Eight Colorado Springs establishments have received warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since February for violating federal regulations aimed at stemming the sale of cigarettes online products to minors, the agency reported Thursday.

The number represents only about 10 percent of the 85 Colorado Springs supermarkets, liquor and convenience stores and bars checked for compliance through Oct. 31, but it sends a message that the FDA is serious about enforcing regulations drawn up in conjunction with the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009.

Inspections in the U.S. began in November 2010, and more than 1,200 establishments nationwide received warning letters between Dec. 29, 2010, and Oct. 31, the FDA said. They were given 15 business days to explain what they would do to comply with the regulations. Future violations could carry penalties of $250 to $10,000, an FDA spokesman said.

Most of the warnings are for selling cheap cigarettes or other buy cigarettes products to minors, but businesses also were cited for improper placement of cigarette displays and vending machines.

“While we applaud the efforts made by many retail establishments to protect our kids, the fact that our nation’s youth can walk into 1,200 retail locations and still obtain access to these deadly products is 1,200 too many,” Lawrence R. Deyton, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a press release.

The FDA contracts with states to perform compliance checks with buy cigarette online retailers, and awarded more than $24 million to 38 states and the District of Columbia this year.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment received a contract of about $850,000 last year, and a renewal for about the same amount this year, said Celeste Schoenthaler, tobacco program manager for the state. In turn, the state health department has subcontracted with local public health agencies to hire staff to do the investigations.About nine full-time-equivalent positions have been added.

“Our goal is to do about 2,600 inspections a year,” Schoenthaler said.

The manager of one Colorado Springs business that received a letter for selling discount cigarettes to a minor said she was surprised by the compliance check.

“I didn’t know they were doing this,” Karen Olivencia, who manages Everyday on South Tejon Street. “I think it’s probably a good idea. You have to control the age at which people buy cigarettes, so you do have to card.”

She said a clerk misread the birthdate on an ID, and the issue was cleared in the store’s response to the FDA.

“They said, ‘that’s fine; you be more careful and card 27 and under.”

No Fountain or Monument businesses received warning letters.

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Campaign Seeks Ban On Candy Flavored Tobacco

Former resident Valencia Morris of the Miami-Dade County Health Department is on a mission to have all candy flavored buy cigarettes products banned from South Miami.

Morris and representatives from the South Miami Alliance for Youth recently spoke at city hall in hopes the mayor and city commissioners might pass a resolution in support of their efforts to ban sales of candy flavored buy cigarette online that appear to specifically target young people.

Accompanied by youngsters Jakiese Abside, age 13, and Niesha Adderley, 14, wearing their SWAT (Students Working Against Tobacco) t-shirts, Morris also showcased a large poster board display creatively designed to highlight the colorful candy-like enticing products purportedly aimed at adolescent buyers.

“The colorful wrapping in the packages, the pattern designs that mimic the look of an X-Box game, these are all strategically marketed to appeal to young people,” says Morris.

According to the Department of Health, 17 year old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored discount cigarettes as smokers over the age of 25. Products like grape flavored cigars, berry flavored spit tobacco and new dissolvable tobacco laden stimulants like Camel Sticks, Strips, and Orbs are all targets of the campaign.

The call to action for the city commission resolution is part of an ongoing education initiative of the Florida Department of Health. So far 19 counties in the state have adopted the resolution and 24 cities, including Miami Beach.

The Miami Beach resolution language stipulates the types of flavored tobacco that are susceptible to youth as “loose tobacco, snuff flour, plug and twist tobacco, fine cuts, chewing tobacco, snus, shisha tobacco, smoking cigarettes or snuff tobacco products and blunt wraps prepared in such a manner with the purpose of chewing, inhaling, smoking cigarettes or ingesting in any manner in which the product or any of its component parts contain, as a constituent or additive, an artificial or natural flavor or an herb or spice, including but not limited to strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, coffee, or alcohol flavors, that is a characterizing flavor of the tobacco product or tobacco smoke.”

New York City has successfully banned the sale of all flavored tobacco products and Wisconsin and Illinois have instituted a state-wide ban.

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Candy Flavored Tobacco

The emergence of new candy-flavored buy cigarette online products has parents, teachers, health advocates, physicians and communities rightly concerned. Cigarillos, cigars and a host of smokeless cheap cigarette online products - chew, snuff, snus, dissolvable tobacco - now come in such tantalizing flavors as pineapple, sour apple and chocolate. They are presented in bright and playful packaging and readily available at convenience stores throughout the state, much like Halloween candy.

These products, widely considered to be a gateway to a lifetime of tobacco addiction, have been proven to entice young audiences. In fact, use of all flavored tobacco products among youth is trending upward. In Florida, one in six kids between the ages of 11 and 17 had ever tried flavored tobacco, and youth erroneously believe these products to be less harmful than their non-flavored counterparts.

“It’s the ultimate guise,” remarked Kim Berfield, Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Health.“Youth are drawn in to the pageantry of these novel products and fall prey to the tobacco industry’s sweet deception.”

Youth have always been an essential target for the tobacco industry. Numerous internal tobacco industry documents reveal that the companies perceive kids as a key market, and develop products and advertising campaigns aimed at them. With traditional smoking cigarettes rates on the decline in the U.S., the tobacco industry insures its livelihood by creating products and strategies that connect with a new generation of tobacco users.

“I want to ensure that my peers understand that candy-flavored tobacco is not safer than discount cigarettes or other ‘plain’ tobacco products,” said Kareem Golden (Putnam County), SWAT State Chair. “I see these products more and more in my everyday life -- in magazines, at sporting events, at local convenience stores. Plus, with some of the new dissolvable products, no one even knows when you’re using them, so I urge people to resist the lure of these products.”

Candy-flavored smokeless tobacco products are also perceived to be less harmful; but in reality, these products contain more nicotine than cigarettes, and 28 cancer-causing agents (carcinogens), including nitrosamines, which are the most harmful. In addition, people who experiment with smokeless tobacco often develop a pattern of regular daily use.

Fortunately, the onslaught of flavored tobacco products has not gone unnoticed. The controversial candy-flavored cigarette was banned under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Actin 2009. However, menthol cigarettes, flavored cigars, cigarillos and smokeless products were not included. Today, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is examining options for regulating these remaining categories of flavored tobacco products.

Many municipalities throughout the state of Florida have taken on candy-flavored tobacco head-on. In June, Sarasota County passed a resolution urging local vendors to cease the sale and marketing of all candy-flavored tobacco products. The Fort Myers City Council also signed a resolution that urges tobacco retailers to stop selling and marketing all flavored tobacco in the city limits.

Remember, candy-flavored tobacco products pose significant health risks. They can cause cancers of the mouth, lung, pancreas, esophagus, and larynx and possibly contribute to the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other respiratory diseases.

Don’t be fooled by the most dangerous disguise of them all. If you are looking to quit or would like to encourage someone to stop using candy-flavored tobacco, Tobacco Free Florida can help. Tobacco Free Florida offers a number of free and convenient resources to help all tobacco users quit.

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Local Retailers Pass FDA Tobacco Compliance Check

In order to make sure that local retailers that sell cheap cigarettes products are not selling to minors and are in compliance with federal laws, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working with state regulators in conducting check inspections of those who sell the products.
Many may question the importance in doing this, but according to reports, retailers do play a very important role in the health protection of America's youth. This can be accomplished by not selling, marketing, or advertising discount cigarette online or smokeless online cigarettes products to underage children and adolescents. The design of the laws are to make the tobacco products less accessible and less attractive to the nation's youth.

According to reports, on a daily basis, almost 3,500 youth between 12 and 17-years of age take that first puff on a cigarette, and an estimated 850 youth begin smoking cigarettes cigarettes every day. Before fully understanding the health risks associated with smoking cigarettes, many of these children will become addicted to tobacco and some may eventually die of tobacco-related causes.

Retailers can play an important role in protecting children and adolescents from these things simply by complying with the law.

During a random check of 34 stores in Service Area 20, which consists of the counties of Dunklin, Pemiscot, New Madrid, and Mississippi County, it was found that two of these stores did sell tobacco products to minors. Those two stores which failed to meet compliance were The Tobacco Shoppe, of Kennett, and The Junction, of Holcomb. Both were issued a warning letter for being noncompliant with the FDA.

According to reports, the remaining 32 stores did pass the FDA tobacco compliance law which simply means, these retailers do not sell tobacco products to minors. The Regional Support Center located in Kennett, would like to recognize those stores in compliance with the law which include, Casey's General Store located at 1108 Independence, Corner Market and Package, Hucks Food and Fuel, and Westside Package, all located in the city.

Other retailers included outside of the city that are in compliance are Casey's General Store located at 211 South Story Street, Casey's General Store located at 308 East Marshall Street, Casey's General Store located at 1202 South Main Street, Charles Top Notch Package Liquor, Cheers Food and Fuel, Country Mart, McClain Brothers Grocery, Pilot Oil Unit, Reeves Boomland and Amoco, and T and J'S Package retailers, all located in Charleston, Mo.; Baker's Big Star, Buddy's Package Store, Casey's General Store, Food Rite, Four-Way Quick Shop, Fred's Super Dollar Stores, Gas N Go/Phillip 66, Pilot Travel Center No.301, and Stop and Shop in Portageville, Mo.; Casey's General Store, DUS, KC Jiffy Mart, and Kathy's Hometown Deli in East Prairie, Mo., Shell Food Mart in Hayti, Mo.; Car Macs Shell in Holland, Mo.; Front Street Market in Morehouse, Mo.; which was checked twice, and The Mustang in Wardell, Mo.

All stores were visited during the months of April, May, June and July of this year.

The FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) will be hosting a series of one-hour webinars that are designed to provide FDA compliance training information. During each of these webinars, there will be a Question and Answer session.

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Smokeless Tobacco Lozenges

Bite-size dissolvable "orbs" that look like breath mints and melt in your mouth are the tobacco industry's latest attempt to fight falling U.S. cigarette sales.

Charlotte is one of two test markets for Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc.'s newest products: dissolvable, smokeless tobacco lozenges that come as orbs, sticks or strips.

The products all contain less nicotine than cigarettes , between 0.5 and 3 milligrams instead of 12 to 15. And, Reynolds spokesman David Howard said, they meet a "societal expectation."

"There's no secondhand smoke, no spitting and no cigarette butt litter," Howard said.

But health officials still worry about the risks of smokeless options. Smokeless tobacco users may not get lung cancer, health experts say, but they risk mouth cancer, gum disease and tooth loss. Prenatal dangers for pregnant women also still exist.

"There are no safe tobacco products," said Dr. Matt Carpenter, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the Medical University of South Carolina who's researching the effect of smokeless products on smoking cigarettes habits.

Huntersville resident Joey Hodge, who's smoked for almost five years, sees the appeal of smokeless products that won't be as tough on his lungs or make him smell like smoke. But the 20-year-old isn't sold on Reynolds' newest offering.

"They were definitely not the greatest thing I've ever tasted," Hodge said. Plus, he added, the products "really didn't do much" to satisfy his nicotine craving.

Hodge's reaction isn't the sort tobacco makers are hoping for. As cigarette sales slide because of the health risks and social stigma, tobacco companies are counting on smokers like Hodge to fuel the new smokeless market. The dissolvable products sell for about $2 for a 12-pack - comparable, Reynolds says, to its other smokeless products.

"They can enjoy tobacco pleasure without bothering others and without having to leave the workplace, or the restaurant or the bar," Howard said.

Analysts say new laws banning cigarettes store in public places, like the ban on smoking cigarettes in restaurants and bars that took effect in North Carolina last January, are among the factors driving a steep decline in cigarette sales.

"In recent years you've seen smoking cigarettes banned in most states in most bars and restaurants. That kind of takes away the fun," said Phil Gorham, industry analyst for investment firm Morningstar.

In its second quarter earnings report last month, Reynolds reported the number of discount cigarette online sold in the U.S. fell 4.4 percent. Gorham said companies like Reynolds can combat falling sales by increasing prices in the short term, but they'll eventually need to diversify revenues.

While American sales of cheap cigarettes drop 3 percent to 4 percent every year, the market for smokeless products grew 3 percent in 2009 and 7 percent in 2010, said Mary Gotaas, tobacco industry analyst for researcher IBISWorld. This year, smokeless sales are expected to jump 8 percent, Gotaas said.

While Reynolds is testing its new dissolvables, Richmond, Va.-based rival Philip Morris has its own product in the works: a dissolvable tobacco stick.

The growth of smokeless products worries some public health advocates who think the new products appeal to children. During the first round of testing, the orbs' packaging resembled Tic Tacs, creating concern that children might confuse them with candy, said Dr. John Spangler, professor of family health and community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

For this round of testing, there's larger packaging and new warnings. Packages now say "This product contains nicotine and is for adult tobacco consumers only" and "There is no safe tobacco product," in addition to one of four required FDA warnings.

The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee of the FDA is holding hearings exploring the implications of smokeless products. Right now, all tobacco products must be age-restricted and kept behind the counter, just like cigarettes.

Warning labels on smokeless tobacco products must cover at least 30 percent of the packaging and every product must carry one of four messages: "Smokeless tobacco is addictive," "This product can cause mouth cancer," "This product can cause gum disease and tooth loss," or "This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes."

Howard said there's no expectation that smokeless dissolvables will be regulated less strictly than other tobacco products. But Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, one of 12 senators who called for the hearings, called dissolvables the latest way for tobacco companies to stay "one step ahead of the sheriff."

One issue on the committee's agenda: the potential use of smokeless tobacco products as quitting aids. Gotaas said that appeal is one of the factors driving smokeless sales.

Dean Torrance of Charlotte, a smoker for 20 years, has tried, and failed, to quit. She said smokeless products may be just what she needs.

"I would like to be able to do smokeless to get me to stop," Torrance said.

But doctors say there are safer ways to quit smoking cigarettes. Both Spangler and Carpenter recommend their patients use tested and proven medications, such as nicotine replacement pills and patches, instead of other tobacco products with unknown consequences that could keep them addicted.

Said Carpenter: "The very best thing that anybody can do for their health, if they're a smoker, is to quit all tobacco products completely."

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Cut Number Of Cigarettes Retailers

The last time you shopped at a convenience store, did you notice the number of cigarettes product advertisements displayed? If not, you're like many other adults who overlook these types of advertisements.

If your teenage son or daughter came with you, however, he or she would notice. Young people are almost twice as likely as adults to recall tobacco advertising and are influenced by their suggestions. By reducing the number of stores permitted to advertise and sell tobacco products in our communities, we can take an important step toward reducing smoking cigarettes rates among young people.

Studies have shown that even brief exposures to tobacco advertisements influence a teenager's decision to smoke. Tobacco advertisements appeal to the physiological needs of teenagers to be considered popular and attractive by their peers. They give teens the impression that tobacco products are socially acceptable.

One in five high school smokers reportedly purchase their cheap cigarettes from a retail store. Tobacco retailers display an average of 18 tobacco ads per store. Since 75 percent of teenagers shop in convenience stores at least once a week, it is essential to reduce the number of stores advertising tobacco products.

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MTSU To Go Cigarettes-free July 1

All forms of cigarettes products will be prohibited on the MTSU campus and university-owned buildings July 1.

Tennessee law already prohibits smoking cigarettes in all buildings owned or operated by the state, which includes any university-owned or leased facilities, vehicles and athletic venues.

The current policy allows smoking cigarettes 20 feet away from doorways, windows, ventilation systems, walkways and gates. All forms of tobacco products including, but not limited to, cigarettes, pipes, cigars, chewing tobacco and snuff, as well as smokeless electronic cigarettes and other similar devices. Tobacco products will be allowed in private vehicles.

President Sidney McPhee has asked that the implementation be delayed until Jan. 1, 2012 to educate the campus community about the policy and provide support to those who wish to cease tobacco usage.

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New Warnings On Cigarettes Packs From December 1

The Centre has notified the new pictorial warnings for being printed on packages of smoking cigarettes and chewable cigarettes products.

The notification, which was issued on Friday and which will take effect from December 1 this year, provides for strong pictorial warnings for smoking cigarettes (cigarettes, bidis, and cigars) and smokeless or chewable forms of tobacco products, including gutka.

A set of four gory pictures, depicting lung and mouth cancer, will be rotated every two years. For cheap cigarettes and ‘bidis,' the pictures show blackened lungs and cancer-affected bloodied mouth, while for smokeless tobacco, pictures of bloodied mouth and gums have been selected.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare amended the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008 — issued under the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (34 of 2003) — to make pictorial warnings mandatory on packages of non-smoking cigarettes forms of tobacco.

The government enacted the comprehensive legislation to combat the menace of tobacco. The 2003 Act provides for a ban on smoking cigarettes in public places and sale of tobacco products to and by minors, prohibition of sale of tobacco products within 100 yards of educational institutions and a ban on all advertisements of tobacco products. It also provides for pictorial health warnings on tobacco product packages.

After a long legal battle, the Rules relating to Section 7 of Act, which mandates pictorial warnings, were notified in 2008 and came into effect on May 31, 2009. As India has ratified the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the government is committed to implementing its guidelines and provisions. Article 11 of the FCTC recommends pictorial warnings as an effective strategy to cut down on the demand for tobacco. The feedback from different sectors indicated that the existing warnings were not strong and effective enough to influence tobacco users to kick the habit. As the use of smokeless tobacco is high in the country and the consumption is more among the lower socio-economic class with low levels of literacy, it is hoped that strong pictorial warnings will definitely dissuade the users from consuming these products.

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