January 25, 2014
Another way that the e-cigarette companies (which are increasingly owned by the big cigarette companies) is that they are keeping Big Tobacco's tradition of using Hollywood to hook kids alive, The latest example of this was the high profile presentation of e-cigs at the Golden Globes, where Leonardo DiCaprio and Julia Louis-Dreyfus were featuring e-cigs.
The last time the Golden Globes featured e-cigs was two years ago. Last year the California Attorney General's office wrote the Globes' lawyer urging them not to allow ecig companies to use the Golden Globes to hawk their products. The Golden Globes complied and even sent a cease and desist letter to the ecig companies to keep the Globes pollution-free.
This year when the California AG made a similar request they were flatly denied. One wonders how lucrative the deal was.
January 25, 2014
Just as e-cigarette advertising is modeled on the most aggressive of old-fashioned cigarette advertising, the e-cigarette companies (which are, increasingly owned by cigarette companies) are mobilizing the same network of right-wing think tanks that the cigarette companies have used for years to push their policy agenda, often linked with the tobacco companies' development of the Tea Party and related groups. John Mashey, a member of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education's Advisory Committee, sent me a few good examples.
Heartland Institute (tobacco documents):
http://blog.heartland.org/2014/01/chicago-bans-indoor-use-of-e-cigarettes-heartland-institute-responds/
January 25, 2014
Robert Jackler and his colleagues have added a approximately. 2000 e-cigarette ads, organized according to the device employed, as well as many videos to their excellent website on cigarette advertising (http://tobacco.stanford.edu) ad well as a comparison of eCig vs Cig advertisements to highlight the resurrection of long banned advertising methods.
Check out the the c-cigarette collection directly at http://tobacco.stanford.edu/tobacco_main/ecigs.php
January 23, 2014
Robert Stumberg, a Professor of Law at Georgetown University, recently published an excellent paper, "Safeguards for Tobacco Control: Options for the TPPA", in American Journal of Law & Medicine that walks readers though the technicalities of trade law and precedents in a way that clearly explains why the TransPacific Partnership Agreement that the Obama Administration is now negotiating with countries around the Pacific Rim will make it more difficult and expensive for countries to implement the FCTC and other tobacco control policies.
He clearly outlines how the complexity of the treaty will create litigation opportunities for the tobacco companies, who have a long history of using the threat of expensive litigation as a strategy for bullying countries (and states and localities and organizations and people). He also describes how some of the provisions that nominally would protect public health are written in ways that still leave important loopholes open for the tobacco companies by not covering all the different potential causes of action that the TPPA creates.
January 22, 2014
University of California, San Francisco
Assistant or Associate Professor Positions
UCSF has 3 positions available at the Assistant or Associate Professor level. The successful candidate will be expected to play an active role in activities related to the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Basic qualifications: Candidate must hold a Doctorate degree (MD, PhD, DDS, DNSc, DrPH, or equivalent degree). Applicants with medical degree must be board eligible or certified in their respective specialty. (Board certification is required at the Associate Professor level.)