Reynolds American spent $702,330 on lobbying in 4th quarter..


February 6, 2009 - Cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc. spent $702,330 in the fourth quarter to lobby against a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate Big Tobacco and other issues. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds also lobbied the federal government on legislation involving cigarette labeling, according to the disclosure report filed January 21 with the House clerk's office.

Altria has long supported the FDA bill (in its present form), but other tobacco makers have argued against it. They fear any greater restriction on their marketing would further solidify Altria's No. 1 position and handicap them to compete against it.

Reference: Reynolds American spent over $702K lobbying in 4Q, Associated Press - Forbes.com, 2/5/2009.

Posted by tobaccowatch.org Friday, February 6, 2009 at 2:35 AM  

1 comments:

  Toque Snuff

February 7, 2009 at 2:36 AM

Having read your very well balanced blog, I would like to point out that not all smokeless tobacco is for oral use and Toque Snuff, a nasal snuff, has been proven to be 99% safer than smoking. Snuff is safer and more successful for stopping smoking than any other NRT, The following figures show as a percentage how successful the various NRT products are when compared to nasal snuff. Snuff 76%, Patches 17% and Gum 12%. With no known harm ever being recorded for nasal snuff, and the number of educated smokers switching to less harmful nasal snuff rising every day, it is a shame not to mention the safer Toque nasal snuff, the fastest growing NRT in America. If every smoker in America switched to Toque snuff we would save 400,000 smokers lives a year.

We are contacted almost daily by youngsters who have been able to stop smoking using harmless nasal snuff. Some 52% of our customers who have successfully stopped smoking using Toque snuff are in the age group 18 - 25. If snuff can save the lives of addicted smokers then surely that must be a good thing.

The medical companies who manufacture the existing NRT products are the same companies who support the very same health organizations that tell the public “All tobacco is evil”. We must have truly independent research from medical associations of the caliber of the Royal College of Physicians and Cancer Research that have provided substantial evidence to prove Nasal snuff is up to 10,000 times safer than smoking.

Professor Martin Jarvis, of Cancer Research UK: says that the health implications surrounding snuff use are significantly lower than smoking. "Studies show that the health hazards surrounding snuff are much less than cigarettes and the risk is approximately one per cent compared with the risks associated with smoking," he explains. "The reason for this is that by smoking you are setting fire to the products which causes their combustion. Snuff doesn’t have the combustion products which are carcinogenic and all the user is getting is the nicotine."

The late Dr Michael Russell, father of tobacco addiction research:
"Snuff could save more lives and avoid more ill-health than any other preventive measure likely to be available to developed nations well into the 21st century". "Switching from cigarettes to snuff could have enormous health benefits". Snuffing has two major advantages... Firstly there are no products of combustion such as tar, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen. Secondly it cannot be inhaled into the lungs, which eliminates any risk of lung cancer.”

Professor (Sir) Robert Peto, Oxford University, World renowned epidemiologist on smoking:
“If this or some other such habit were to become widespread and did to any substantial extent replace smoking (particularly of cigarettes) then the net effect would be likely to be a reduction in tobacco-induced mortality.
One of the best endorsements of harm reduction and the health benefit of switching to snuff now comes from the Life Insurance Industry. Life Insurance companies now conclude that smokeless tobacco users live much longer than smokers and are offering them similar premiums to those of non-smokers.
Present day Doctors appear to have either forgotten their Hippocratic Oath or are blindly accepting what the big pharmaceutical companies tell them. Don’t forget the manufacturers of all the stop smoking products currently on the market are the same pharmaceutical companies who monopolise all our medicines and make billions and billions every year exploiting the vulnerable. They have a vested interest in selling their own products.

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