March 25, 2015
From Public Citizen c/o Ellen Shaffer at CPATH:
This leak of TPP investment provisions appears as negotiators report that they are close to an agreement. The chapter includes provisions regarding corporate rights to file trade challenges against sovereign nations' laws and regulations, including a wide range of public health protections. The Obama Administration is grasping at a PR campaign to convince progressives that the TPP fulfills candidate Obama's pledge in 2008 to re-negotiate NAFTA - !! Best, Ellen Shaffer
For Immediate Release: Contact: Symone Sanders (202) 454-5108
March 25, 2015 Lori Wallach (202) 454-5107, [email protected]
TPP Leak Reveals Extraordinary New Powers for Thousands of Foreign Firms to Challenge U.S. Policies and Demand Taxpayer Compensation
Unveiling of Parallel Legal System for Foreign Corporations Will Fuel TPP Controversy, Further Complicate Obama’s Push for Fast Track
March 24, 2015
Hollywood and Tobacco: New Spotlight on Smoking At The Movies
Launch of Revamped UCSF Website Ranks Actors, Directors, Top 10 Movies by Their Use of Tobacco
UC San Francisco is launching a revamped Smokefree Movies website that offers the public unusual insight into Hollywood’s role in the global tobacco epidemic, projected to kill one billion people this century.
Updated every week, the site ranks film producers, directors, writers and actors by their on-screen tobacco footprint based on a database of more than 2,000 films released since 2002.
The site currently lists the five “smokiest” actors, directors, and producers since 2002 as:
Actors Directors Producers
Leonardo DiCaprio Martin Scorsese Grant Heslov
J.K. Simmons George Clooney George Clooney
Vince Vaughn Clint Eastwood Scott Rudin
March 23, 2015
Lucy England and colleagues at the CDC Office on Smoking and Health recently published an important paper, "Nicotine and the Developing Human: A Neglected Element in the Electronic Cigarette Debate," in American Journal of Preventive Medicine. This paper makes the important point that, contrary to glib assertions e-cigarette enthusiasts make that "it is the tar not the nicotine in cigarettes that kills people" they add to case that nicotine, while not the only dangerous thing in cigarettes, is nonetheless dangerous.
Here is the abstract of their paper:
March 23, 2015
It is no secret that in recent years I have been critical of the California Department of Public Health's media campaign for loosing its edge.
That just changed with CDPH's launch a of great campaign to educate the public about e-cigarettes. It is the best thing out there so far.
You can view the two TV ads here and here and a collection of the print ads here.
The program has a great highly interactive website at www.stillblowingsmoke.org
This is the press release announcing the campaign:
California Debuts Ads to Counter E-cigarettes
SACRAMENTO – Twenty-five years after launching the first anti-smoking advertisements in the state, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on Monday, March 23, 2014, will premiere a series of television, digital, and outdoor ads in a new campaign called “Wake Up,” as part of its educational effort to inform the public about the dangers of e-cigarettes.
March 19, 2015
This is a big step in the right direction, but the Administration needs to move beyond just consulting with economists on this issue of neuroscience.
From Reuters:
Exclusive: U.S. to roll back 'lost pleasure' approach on health rules
12:42pm EDT
By Sharon Begley and Toni Clarke