Cigarette Companies Can Not Sell Their Stories

Big Tobacco is not only finding it hot in the great State of Florida, but also in the great State of Connecticut as well.

There, a federal court judge, Hon. Stefan Underhill, was asked by RJ Reynolds to overturn a jury verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $28 million (Izzarelli v. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co; case no. 3:99-cv-2338). Judge Underhill apparently did not buy what Big Tobacco was selling any more than the jury did.

This new Connecticut case is interesting in a few ways. Big Tobacco brought on its typical defenses of discount cigarettes are not addictive, but if they are addictive, the plaintiff could have quit if she really tried; that there were warnings about the dangers of smoking cigarettes on the cigarette packages, if they are dangerous; and that if cheap cigarette online are dangerous, they only are because of the ingredients that are naturally found in cigarettes.

The court set forth a number of things brought into evidence in the case that justified the jury verdict of $28 million.

During the 1970’s, RJ Reynolds was losing market share in the new smoker group and was desirous of catching up with their competitors in the ability to addict people to cigarettes. They had known for a very long time that a cigarette is really nothing more than a delivery system for nicotine in a form that is acceptable to the user. In other words, Big Tobacco could sell something that allowed the user to inject the drug nicotine into their system through a cigarette much easier than they could by selling it in hypodermic needles. Big Tobacco had also known for quite some time that it is “free nicotine” that really gives the smoker the “kick” of nicotine into the system and, more importantly, Big Tobacco knew they could control the levels of “free nicotine” in cigarettes, thus controlling the “kick”.

What RJ Reynolds and the other manufacturers really craved for was to lure potential smokers under the age of 18 into the cigarette addicted population. Sadly for RJ Reynolds, Kool cigarettes, manufactured by Phillip Morris, had been burning them on market share. RJ Reynolds quickly undertook to fix this problem through manipulation of nicotine in their product:

“Notably, R.J.Reynolds discovered that (when altered with fructose alone or a fructose/ammonia gas mixture) the online cigarettes blend formulation G7 used in its Winston and Salem products increased the amount of nicotine in the cigarette as well as the percentage of nicotine transferred to the smoker.”

And:

“With respect to the effective dose range of nicotine required to maintain addiction, R.J. Reynolds understood that, although an increase in free nicotine would enhance the addictive property of the cigarette, a decrease in the nicotine yield of the cigarette would increase the number of buy cigarette online required to meet the addiction demand.”

“…the jury could have reasonably found that R.J. Reynolds manipulated and altered the discount cigarette online and the chemical additives in Salem Kings to enhance the addictive nature of the product, increase the number of cigarettes for sale smoked by the consumer, and ultimately deliver a higher level of carcinogens to the consumer as compared to other cigarette products.”

The evidence in this case set forth that not only were Big Tobacco targeting teens in hopes of adding them to the addicted masses, for 20 years after the plaintiff (Izzarelli) began smoking cigarettes and as late as the mid-1990’s, Big Tobacco persisted in its efforts to “dispel the notion that cheap cigarettes are an addictive product and to discredit health warnings about buy cigarettes maintain the dangers of cigarette smoking cigarettes have been well known for a century, while testifying under oath that the claimed dangers of their products do not exist at all.

In Florida, Big Tobacco regularly stands before juries and tells them the same lies that their own CEO’s have previously testified about under oath. Tobacco company lawyers stand before juries and tell them all about how the dangers of smoking cigarettes buy cigarettes have been known to everyone for ever. They claim that nicotine, although addictive, is a naturally occurring ingredient in buy cigarettes that is, well, not THAT addictive. They tell jurors all about “free will” and that, well shucks, they are just a bunch of poor farmers trying to eke out a living.

The truth is Big Tobacco has taken a natural product (cigarettes) and spent billions of dollars trying to re-engineer it into the “best drug delivery system in the world”, while they tinker with the addictive ingredients of their product to try and increase market share. All the while Big Tobacco has been telling the public things like this excerpt of a 1976 letter from Public Relations employee TK Cahill

The truth is that Tobacco companies want the public to believe its version of revised history. Big Tobacco needs the public and juries to believe they did not manipulate buy cigarettes to increase addictiveness and that anyone can quit anytime they want; they need them to believe the industry did not spend billions of dollars trying to convince the public that buy cigarettes were not just safe, but actually healthy for you; and they need them to believe that smokers who started smoking cigarettes back in the 1940’s and 1950’s knew about the dangers of smoking cigarettes.

In sum, Big Tobacco is still selling poison. They still have buy cigarettes on the market that addict and kill people every day. Now, though, they are also selling lies, fiction and fables to jurors and the public; well, at least to those who do not remember anything but Tobacco’s revisionist history.

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30 Interesting Cigarettes Facts

The world’s view on smoking cigarettes has changed dramatically over the last century. The habit was once considered to be cool, sexy, good for your health, and widely enjoyed by many people. It was promoted by sportsmen, and advertised all over television. No one could be seen acting in a movie without a lit cigarette in their hand! Today, smoking is considered to be a nasty addictive habit that can kill you and those around you. You wont find them advertised anywhere – nor will you see anyone smoking inside a public building. It seems that these days smokers are considered to be anti-social and are often frowned at if seen smoking outside in crowded places. Below is a list of interesting facts about cigarettes.







1. Cigarettes are the single-most traded item on the planet, with approximately 1 trillion being sold from country to country each year. At a global take of more than $400 billion, it’s one of the world’s largest industries.







2. The nicotine content in several major brands is reportedly on the rise. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Health Department revealed that between 1997 and 2005 the amount of nicotine in Camel, Newport, and Doral cigarettes may have increased by as much as 11 percent.







3. In 1970, President Nixon signed the law that placed warning labels on cigarettes and banned television advertisements for cigarettes. The last date that cigarette ads were permitted on TV was extended by a day, from December 31, 1970 to January 1, 1971 to allow the television networks one last cash windfall from cigarette advertising in the New Year’s Day football games.







4. U.S. cigarette manufacturers now make more money selling cigarettes to countries around the globe than they do selling to Americans.







5. The American brands Marlboro, Kool, Camel and Kent own roughly 70% of the global cigarette market.







6. Cigarettes contain arsenic, formaldehyde, lead, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia and 43 known carcinogens.







7. In the early 1950s, the Kent brand of cigarettes used crocidolite asbestos as part of the filter, a known active carcinogen.







8. Urea, a chemical compound that is a major component in urine, is used to add “flavor” to cigarettes.







9. The ‘Cork Tip’ filter was originally invented in 1925 by Hungarian inventor Boris Aivaz, who patented the process of making the cigarette filter from crepe paper. All kinds of filters were tested, although ‘cork’ is unlikely to have been one of them.







10. In most countries around the world, the legal age for the purchase of tobacco products is now 18, raised from 16, while in Japan the age minimum is 20 years old.







11. Contrary to popular social belief, it is NOT illegal to smoke tobacco products at any age. Parents are within the law to allow minors to smoke, and minors are within the law to smoke tobacco products freely. However, the SALE of tobacco products is highly regulated with legal legislation.







12. Smoking bans in many parts of the world have been employed as a means to stop smokers smoking in public. As a result, many social businesses have claimed a significant drop in the number of people who go out to pubs, bars and restaurants.







13. Scientists claim the average smoker will lose 14 years of their life due to smoking. This however does not necessarily mean that a smoker will die young – and they may still live out a ‘normal’ lifespan.







14. The U.S. states with the highest percentage of smokers are Kentucky (28.7%), Indiana (27.3%), and Tennessee (26.8%), while the states with the fewest are Utah (11.5%), California ( 15.2%), and Connecticut (16.5%).







15. Cigarettes can contain more than 4,000 ingredients, which, when burned, can also produce over 200 ‘compound’ chemicals. Many of these ‘compounds’ have been linked to lung damage.







16. The United States is the only major cigarette market in the world in which the percentage of women smoking cigarettes (22%) comes close to the number of men who smoke (35%). Europe has a slightly larger gap (46% of men smoke, 26% of women smoke), while most other regions have few women smokers. The stats: Africa (29% of men smoke, 4% of women smoke); Southeast Asia (44% of men, 4% of women), Western Pacific (60% of men, 8% of women)







17. Nicotine reaches the brain within 10 seconds after smoke is inhaled. It has been found in every part of the body and in breast milk.







18. Sugar approximates to roughly 20% of a cigarette, and many diabetics are unaware of this secret sugar intake. Also, the effect of burning sugar is unknown.







19. ‘Lite’ cigarettes are produced by infusing tobacco with CO2 and superheating it until the tobacco ‘puffs up’ like expanding foam. The expanded tobacco then fills the same paper tube as ‘regular’ tobacco.







20. Smokers draw on ‘lite’ and menthol cigarettes harder (on average) than regular cigarettes; causing the same overall levels of tar and nicotine to be consumed.







21. ‘Lite’ cigarettes are manufactured with air holes around the filter to aerate the smoke as it is drawn in. Many smokers have learned to cover these holes with their fingers or their lips to get a stronger hit.







22. The immune systems of smokers has to work harder every day than non-smokers. As a result, a smokers’ blood will contain less antioxidants, although a smokers immune system may be quicker to respond to virus attacks due to its more active nature.







23. Smokers often smoke after meals to ‘allow food to digest easier’. In fact, this works because the bodies priority moves away from the digestion of food in favor of protecting the blood cells and flushing toxins from the brain.







24. Some people (mostly males) can be aroused by the sight of smoker smoking (usually females). This is called the Smoking Fetish, and affects a small number of the population. As with most fetishes, the reason for this arousal can usually be traced back to incidents in childhood. However, cigarettes – particularly menthols, force blood away from the penis if smoked while aroused.







25. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 25% of cigarettes sold around the world are smuggled.







26. Most smokers take up the habit in their mid teens, well before the legal age for purchasing them, and is seen as a right of passage towards adulthood. Other perceived rights of passage include: aftershave, wearing stilettos, alcohol, drugs and sexual intercourse; with a combination of these sometimes being cited as the main causes of teenage pregnancy.







27. Smoking tobacco is the ultimate gateway drug in that it is legally available, and involves mastering a unique method of intake – much more so than alcohol (which has such a significant effect that users need look no further for stimulation). Smokers looking to get ‘high’ will very rarely do so from cigarettes after the initial stages of taking up the habit.







28. Smokers generally report a variety of after-effects; such as calmness, relaxation, alertness, stimulation, concentration and many others. In fact, smoking will produce a different effect in each individual depending on ‘what they expect to get’; turning the cigarette into the worlds most popular placebo (satisfying the brains hunger for nicotine being the only ‘relaxing’ factor). The smoker will then use these expectations as a means to continue the habit.







29. Several active ingredients and special methods of production are involved in making sure the nicotine in a cigarette is many times more potent than that of a tobacco plant.







30. ‘Toppings’ are added to the blended tobacco mix to add flavor and a taste unique to the manufacturer. Some of these toppings have included; clove, licorice, orange oil, apricot stone, lime oil, lavender oil, dill seed oil, cocoa, carrot oil, mace oil, myrrh, beet juice, bay leaf, oak, rum, vanilla, and vinegar.

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