April 30, 2015
Last year, in part because of lack of proactive support from the big health groups, a bill to include e-cigarettes in the state clean indoor air law was hijacked by behind-the-scenes lobbying by the big cigarette companies (for details, see out California report).
This year things are different. As described below, the big health groups are working hard to support Senator Mark Leno’s SB140. This is a very well-written bill that will make a substantial commitment to public health.
The fact that the bill is stuck in the Senate Appropriations Committee is strong evidence that the industry is fighting hard (as always, in the shadows), since this bill does not require appropriating any money. Indeed, by improving health it will save money.
As Jim Knox notes below, there are also two bad bills that will help the industry.
I testified for SB140 in the Health Committee and urge others who support science-based public health to do what they can to help move this bill forward.
Here is Jim's briefing:
From: Jim Knox [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2015 7:12 PM
April 29, 2015
Blu E-Cigs Not Safer or Healthier, Class Claims
Courthouse News Service
SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) - Lorillard Tobacco Company falsely advertises its Blu brand of electronic cigarettes as "safer" and "healthier" than standard smokes when they're not, a class claims in state court.
Lead plaintiff Larry Diek says in a 50-page complaint filed last week in Orange County Superior Court that he would not have purchased Blu e-cigarettes if he had known about their dangers.
(The full story is at the link above)
April 29, 2015
This letter was sent to Karen Smith, head of the California Department of Public Health, a couple days ago;
April 27, 2015
Karen Smith, M.D., M.P.H.
State Health Officer and Director
California Department of Public Health
1615 Capitol Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95814
[email protected]
Dear Dr. Smith,
We, the undersigned public health and health equity leaders from throughout the state, want to express our strong support for the California Department of Public Health’s recent steps to protect California’s youth from the dangers posed by e-cigarettes. As public health professionals, we concur with the Department and believe that the time to take public health action on e-cigarettes is now.
April 25, 2015
On April 22, 2015, Vivek H. Murthy took the oath of office to serve as US Surgeon General for the next four years. His wide-ranging speech dealt with several aspects of tobacco control, including announcing that, “I want 100% tobacco-free campuses at every college and university in America. We’re already one-quarter of the way there. We in the federal government should lead by example, making our federal campuses – and over one million units of public housing – tobacco-free, too.”
He also addressed the problem of smoking in movies. Referring to Disney CEO Robert Iger’s public announcement that there would no longer be any smoking in any films Disney distributed, Murthy said, “In the great American community, more companies will follow the example of Disney, which has committed to eliminating smoking from all its movies watched by children. We could save over a million children from premature death if every film studio followed suit.”
We are all, of course, waiting to see what the Disney policy actually is – the company has not yet posted the actual policy on its web site – to see if there any loopholes. But having this kind of recognition from the new Surgeon General ought to make it harder for Disney to include loopholes.
April 23, 2015
Jonathan R. Polansky, Kori Titus, Renata Atayeva, and I just released our analysis of smoking in 2014 films. The full report is available at http://escholarship.org/uc/item/5d5348rs.
SUMMARY of FINDINGS
From 2002 to 2014, the share of youth-rated (G/PG/PG-13) films with tobacco imagery fell by nearly half, from 68% to 36%. However, almost half of PG-13 films still featured tobacco imagery in 2014. There has been no substantial decline in the percentage of all youth-rated films with smoking since 2010.
Films rated G or PG comprise about 20 percent of all top-grossing films. Tobacco presence in these films continued to be very low, less than a single incident per film on average. PG-13 films comprise 45 percent of top-grossing films. On average, there were 19 tobacco incidents per PG-13 film in 2014, near the top of the range observed between 2002 and 2014.