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04/04/08
Appeals Court Panel Throws Out Class Action Over Light Cigarettes

In a victory for the tobacco industry, a federal appeals court threw out on Thursday an $800 billion class-action lawsuit on behalf of smokers who said they had been misled that light cigarettes were safer than regular ones.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers wanted to represent millions of people across the country who had smoked light cigarettes. But the court, saying it was impossible to generalize about why smokers chose light cigarettes, ruled that the group could not be treated as a class. Instead, smokers wanting to sue over the issue would have to do so individually.
. . .

Clifford E. Douglas, the executive director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network, said there was generally a high “win rate” in cases against the tobacco industry, but not when it came to class actions.

“Some courts have been very sympathetic, but many have had problems with the individualized nature of smoking and smoking-related injuries,” Mr. Douglas said.

Mr. Douglas, a lawyer who has been involved in litigation against the tobacco industry, said the ruling illustrates that the courts are a poor surrogate for government regulation when it comes to holding the industry accountable.

“I think this underscores the need to combat the light cigarette scam in the public policy arena,” Mr. Douglas said, citing a bill in Congress that would give the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco. The bill would ban the use of terms like light and low-tar in marketing such cigarettes, which contain the same tobacco as other cigarettes but have filters that allow more air to mix with the smoke, diluting it.

Events

05/17/08
5th ANNUAL TOBACCO DOCUMENTS WORKSHOP: PUTTING THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY’S WORDS TO WORK FOR YOU
May 17, 2008
10:15 am - 5:30 pm
University of California, San Francisco, Kalmanovitz Library
530 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, California
For more information and to register for the workshop, please contact: Jenni Alexander, Jenni.Alexander@ucsf.edu or 415 502 6341
Description: The workshop will cover: introduction to tobacco industry documents databases; hands-on practice searching and extracting key industry documents under the supervision of expert documents researchers; examples of ways in which the documents can be used to promote tobacco-free communities; and opportunities to network and brainstorm with top documents researchers and other advocates.

06/07/08
5th World Conference on Nonsmokers' Rights
June 7-8, 2008
George Washington University Law School
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC
Description: Presentations and discussions of new legal and law-related actions to protect nonsmokers' rights.

06/16/08
5-Day Tobacco Dependence Treatment Specialist Training
June 16-20, 2008
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Public Health
New Brunswick, NJ
Description: "The Tobacco Dependence Program of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Public Health has developed this training to prepare professionals to provide intensive specialist treatment for tobacco dependence. The 5-Day Core Training will provide health professionals with an in-depth understanding of Tobacco Dependence, as well as the essential science-based treatment tools necessary to help their client’s achieve freedom from tobacco use."

06/22/08
Aerosol Dynamics and Health: Strategies to Reduce Exposure and Harm
June 22-26, 2008
Cardiff University, School of Biosciences
Wales, UK
Description: This meeting intends to bring together scientists from a variety of disciplines (toxicologists, biologists, chemists, physicists and material scientists) that work at the 'bio-particulate interface’. It aims to present and discuss, via topical 'break-out' sessions, the current thoughts on the 'burden to human health' following exposure to and harm from 'combustion-derived particles'. Furthermore, strategies for reducing harm associated with exposure to particulate pollutants will be another feature of this cross-disciplinary meeting.

06/23/08
Tobacco Treatment Specialist Certification
June 23-27, 2008
Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center
Rochester, MN

07/13/08
Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies International Summer Program for Tobacco Control Research
July 13-17, 2008
University of Aleppo - Faculty of Medicine
Aleppo, Syria
Description: The Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies (SCTS), in partnership with University of Aleppo, University of Memphis, American University of Beirut, and Virginia Commonwealth University, are pleased to announce their first International Summer Program for Tobacco Control Research. This week-long tobacco control research-oriented course is designed to meet the needs of a wide range of health-related professionals, who need training in tobacco control research methods but whose circumstances preclude their enrollment in prolonged training programs.


08/27/08
UICC World Cancer Congress
August 27-31, 2008
Geneva, Switzerland

09/08/08
9th Annual Michigan Substance Abuse Conference (Michigan Association of Community Mental Health Boards)
September 8-9, 2008
Lansing Center
Lansing, MI

09/15/08
Tobacco Treatment Specialist Certification
September 15-19, 2008
Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center
Rochester, MN

09/22/08
5-Day Tobacco Dependence Treatment Specialist Training
September 22-26, 2008
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Public Health
New Brunswick, NJ
Description: "The Tobacco Dependence Program of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Public Health has developed this training to prepare professionals to provide intensive specialist treatment for tobacco dependence. The 5-Day Core Training will provide health professionals with an in-depth understanding of Tobacco Dependence, as well as the essential science-based treatment tools necessary to help their client’s achieve freedom from tobacco use."

09/23/08
10th SRNT Europe Conference
September 23-26, 2008
Atahotel "Villa Pamphili"
Rome, Italy
Description: The theme of the Conference is: 'The Scientific Evidence: Criteria for Therapy, Needs for Prevention'. This thematic choice derives from the acknowledgement that in spite of Guidelines and of the available scientific literature, the practical intervention for smoking cessation, prevention and tobacco control is still based on common-sense, intuition and non-evidence based approaches.

10/13/08
Intensive Treatment of the Tobacco Dependent Patient: A Certification Program for Tobacco Treatment Specialists
October 13-16, 2008
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Jackson, MS

10/28/08
SRNT First Asian Regional Conference
October 28-31, 2008
Bangkok, Thailand
Description: "This conference is special in several ways. Its theme is “Developing Research Infrastructure and Skills to Meet FCTC Obligations.” This means that participants will be actively involved in a process that will go beyond mere sharing of experience. Working together, conference participants will build connections and plans for future research cooperation."

11/02/08
51st International Conference on Dependencies: Empowerment for Practitioners
November 2-7, 2008
International Council on Alcohol and Addictions (ICAA)
Limassol, Cyprus
Description: Under the overall theme "Empowerment for Practitioners," the conference will particularly focus on capacity building and target all those who work in prevention, treatment, research and policy development.

11/18/08
Accelerating Change with Best Practices (Wisconsin Tobacco Control and Prevention Conference)
November 18-19, 2008
Monona Terrace Convention Center
Madison, WI
Who should attend: Local tobacco control coalition members & coordinators, policymakers, local public health educators, public health nurses, health officers, agencies serving populations with tobacco-related disparities, health care providers & clinic managers, health care system administrators, wellness coordinators, higher education staff & students, school & youth-serving agencies and youth advocates.

03/08/09
14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health
March 8-12, 2009
Mumbai, India

News

01/02/08
Tobacco Control Success vs. Demographic Destiny: Examining the Causes of the Low Smoking Prevalence in California

Authors:
Kenneth E. Warner, David Mendez and Omar Alshanqeety

American Journal of Public Health, 10.2105/AJPH.2007.112318 (published online ahead of print)

Abstract:
We examined the effect of demographics on California’s low smoking prevalence. We estimated that if the United States had the same demographics as California, then the US adult smoking prevalence in 2005 would have been 19.3%, 1.6 percentage points lower than the reported 20.9% for the United States, but 4.1 percentage points higher than California’s prevalence of 15.2% in 2005. Tobacco control appears to be a much more important factor than demographics in determining California’s low smoking rates.

12/11/07
Monitoring the Future Survey
Overall, illicit drug use by American teens continues gradual decline in 2007

Authors:
L.D. Johnston, P.M. O'Malley, J.G. Bachman and J.E. Schulenberg

The number of U.S. teens who smoke has shown significant declines in recent years, particularly among those in their early teens. These declines can be seen in their lifetime, 30-day, and daily smoking rates, according to the latest Monitoring the Future (MTF) study.

Including a further decline this year, the rate of smoking in the prior 30 days is now down by two thirds among 8th graders to 7 percent from the peak level reached in 1996 of 21 percent. “That should eventually translate into many fewer illnesses and premature deaths for this generation of young people,” said University of Michigan Distinguished Research Scientist Lloyd Johnston, the study’s principal investigator.

MTF, now in its 33rd year, tracks smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use among the nation’s secondary school students, surveying about 50,000 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in more than 400 secondary schools every year. A separate, accompanying report provides the results relating to illicit drug and alcohol use.

(For the complete press release and links to information on the tobacco-specific findings of the Monitoring the Future survey, see http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/data/07data.html#2007data-cigs.)