Three and a half million dollars. That, according to Open Secrets, is what Philip Morris has spent lobbying this year. It’s just over three times what the second biggest company company spent.It’s also more than half of all the money spent on Tobacco lobbying in the US. And what’s it spending the money on? Here’s [...]

Yesterday we wrote about Al Arabiya newspaper’s claims that the WHO had said electronic cigarettes were more dangerous than smoking. We contacted the WHO to confirm whether the claims were correct. We had the following reply: Dear Mr James, The position of the World Health Organization is that studies are necessary to determine whether electronic [...]

According to Al Arabiya the electronic cigarette is more dangerous than smoking.  The newspaper bases its claims on what it states is the WHO’s position.  Electronic cigarettes, now available at pharmacies in many Gulf countries, are sold as a substitute to regular cigarettes and marketed as a better type that helps users quit smoking. But [...]

Bill Godshall from Smokefree Penyslvania has sent a mass email urging e-smokers to stop the tobacco bill. “Sen. Kennedy has introduced his FDA tobacco bill (S. 982) and scheduled a Senate HELP Committee mark-up session on the bill beginning next Tuesday, May 12.” Please urge committee members (contact info below) to OPPOSE the bill unless/until [...]

It’s been a busy week for electronic cigarettes, with a leaked FDA email, reponses to the email from experts, claims by the FDA that the email was inaccurate (so there was an email?), a You Tube address by Matt Salmon, new president of the Electronic Cigarette Association … so here is our roundup of what [...]

Here is Bill Godshall’s comment on the Wall Street journal article that we also commented on regarding the appointment of the executive director of Tobacco Free Kids to the Whitehouse: Per the following article, a decade ago CTFK unsuccessfully lobbied Congress to enact another privately negotiated deal with Philip Morris (and others) that would have [...]

William Corr, former executive director of Tobacco Free Kids, has been made number two in the US Department of Health and Human Services. That was the news as reported in The Wall Street Journal yesterday. That’s bad news for people who think smokers should have the right to tar and carinogen free smoking alternatives: Tobacco [...]

SmokeFree Pensylvania is urging smokers and tobacco harm reductionists to support a move to: (1) allow nicotine gum, lozenges and patches to be sold by all retailers that sell cigarettes, (2) allow these nicotine products to be sold in less expensive daily dose units, and (3) change warning labels on these nicotine products to truthfully [...]

An Electronic Cigarette Association has been launched with the aim of defending the interests of e-cig smokers and suppliers. I’ve just received an email with an address from Matt Salmon, former congressman and first president of the ECA – you can read it here: Electronic Cigarette Association Announcement. We are interested in joining ourselves as [...]

We saw with interest and sadness the FDA’s recent leaked email on a planned crackdown on the electronic cigarette. (You can see the full email here: FDA Crackdown On E-ciagrette, as well as the response from Smokefree Pennsylvania .) As we have done before, we wrote about the issue on Associated Content, only to be [...]