Feature Article

As the number of smokers has steadily declined and the public has become more educated about the hazards of smoking and secondhand smoke, tobacco manufacturers have resorted to increasingly underhanded tactics in order to gain every economic advantage possible. Just recently, the tobacco industry has funded organizations that have attempted to defeat statewide smoke-free initiatives and anti-tobacco candidates by confusing and misleading voters. In addition, a majority of state attorneys general have petitioned the U.S. Treasury to eliminate a loophole allowing certain cigarette-like products to be classified as cigars. Tobacco companies have used this loophole in order to avoid cigarette taxes and packaging requirements, thus making "little cigars" cheaper and more attractive to youth.

In Ohio, Arizona and Nevada, tobacco companies have poured money into efforts to defeat ballot initiatives that would require all workplaces be smoke-free. The industry has sponsored alternative initiatives in all three states that would preempt existing local smoke-free laws and prevent local smoke-free laws in the future. With misleading names like the Arizona Non-Smoker Protection Act and Smoke Less Ohio, the intent is clearly to confuse voters. Poll results have clearly indicated widespread public support for the right of all workers to breathe clean air in their workplaces, and opponents have resorted to deception instead of debating the issues.

In California, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that a tobacco industry-funded organization sent flyers to voters falsely claiming that Assemblywoman and State Board of Education candidate Judy Chu had accepted contributions from tobacco companies and cast votes in favor of those companies. Not only had she voted overwhelmingly against tobacco interests and refused contributions from tobacco companies, but her opponent for the State Board of Equalization is one of the largest recipients in the California Legislature of tobacco contributions. The California Political Empowerment Committee, which mailed the flyer, has taken at least $57,000 from Altria, Lorillard Tobacco Company, and US Tobacco . The State Board of Equalization is responsible for regulating cigarette sales in California .

Finally, thirty-nine state attorneys general petitioned the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to put an end to tobacco companies misclassifying cigarettes as "little cigars."  The misclassification allows the products to avoid higher cigarette taxes and evade packaging laws (such as the requirement that cigarettes cannot be sold in less than a pack of twenty).  Sometimes the only difference between these "little cigars" and cigarettes is that they are rolled in brown paper.  As cigarette sales have declined, sales of little cigars have increased by 270 percent from 1995 to 2005.  The attorneys general are asking the TTB to close the loophole that allows tobacco companies to determine how their products are classified.  Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro was not among the thirty-nine attorneys general who signed on to the petition.