Philip Morris (PM) to close N.C. cigarette plant..

June 26, 2007 - Philip Morris (PM) to close N.C. cigarette plant.. PM USA will close its 2,500-employee cigarette plant in Concord in Cabarrus County, North Carolina in three years, citing a decline in U.S. demand for cigarettes. Most local production will move to the company's Richmond, Va., facility, where many of the Cabarrus County plant's workers would be offered jobs, the company announced on Tuesday, June 26, 2007. The decision to close the 2.4 million-square-foot Concord plant is part of a larger plan by the subsidiary of New York-based Altria Group Inc. to consolidate its facilities and move more cigarette production to Europe, where smoking isn't taking such a large hit as in the United States. The decision will leave the 1.6 million-square-foot Richmond facility as Philip Morris' only U.S. production plant. The Concord shutdown will hit the local economy hard. Philip Morris is Concord's top taxpayer; in 2006, the company paid nearly $5 million in total municipal taxes. Cigarettes can be produced at a lower cost overseas and marketed to customers who are not as concerned about health issues as they are in the United States, where consumption has been on the decline since the 1960s. (by Ken Elkins, Charlotte Business Journal, 6/26/2007) Click on image to enlarge.. Read more...

Substantial scientific evidence shows that higher cigarette prices result in lower overall cigarette consumption...

June 26, 2007 - Substantial scientific evidence shows that higher cigarette prices result in lower overall cigarette consumption. Most studies indicate that a 10% increase in price will reduce overall cigarette consumption by 3% to 5%. Youth, minorities, and low-income smokers are two to three times more likely to quit or smoke less than other smokers in response to price increases.(Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report of the Surgeon General - 2000).

Did you ever wonder what's the cheapest pack of cigarettes at your local convenience store??? Maybe it's Bailey's, Basic, Pyramid, Niagara, Pyramid or USA Gold. I'm afraid that large tobacco companies already control, this aspect of the business in most cases. Take for example one c-store - an R.J. Reynold's Tobacco Co. controlled store. There's an agreement that no pack of cigarettes can sell below the price of Doral. (TobaccoWatch.org)

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Tobacco ads now even appears in PC Magazine (June 5, 2007)...

June 24, 2007 - Tobacco ads now even appears in PC Magazine (June 5, 2007). - UST's latest Skoal Flavor - Citris Blend - also comes in pouches. President Nixon on April 1, 1970 signed the act banning cigarette advertisng on TV and Radio. The Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) of November 1998 prohibited participating tobacco companies from directly or indirectly targeting youth in marketing. The tobacco industry response to the MSA was at best modest, reducing proportional allocations of advertising to youth magazines but increasing the absolute amount of such advertising (Hamilton etal., Tobacco Control 11:ii54-ii58, 2002). Studies show that tobacco ads continued to reach large numbers of youth but it's difficult to determine if tobacco companies were actually violating the MSA youth-targeting ban. The European Union Tobacco Advertising Directive took effect in July 2005. This EU Directive bans tobacco advertising in the print media, on radio and over the Internet. Tobacco advertising on television has been banned in the EU since the early 1990s. The United States should also ban tobacco advertising in the print media to eliminate tobacco companies excuses that they weren't advertising to youngsters. It is still true in 2007 just as it was in 1973 - if tobacco companies are to survive and prosper, over the long term they must get their share of the youth market (14-24).(Claude Teague, Assistant Chief in R&D at RJ Reynolds, writes a paper: "Some Thoughts About New Brands of Cigarettes for the Youth Market") Click on Image to Enlarge.

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