The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter
Issue # 45: 12/10/99
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In this issue:
1. James Leavey's Corner
2. High Court Wary of Classifying Tobacco as Drug
3. NCI Should Hang Its Head In Shame
4. No Connection To Second-hand Smoke
5. Tobacco Settlement Funds: State Updates
6. Genetic Mutation Linked To Aggressive Lung Cancer
7. See U There
8. We Are Everyday People
1. James Leavey's Corner: By James Leavey.
Bogart Lights Up, The Ladies Who Do, Dracula - Alive And Loving It, Sharing An Ashtray With Jerry Springer and many more great articles to enjoy.
2. High Court Wary of Classifying Tobacco as Drug: By David G. Savage.
The Supreme Court justices, looking closely at the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, said that they did not see how cigarettes could be classified in the same category as medicines.
"It just doesn't fit," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor exclaimed, describing her reaction to calling a cigarette a drug.
3. NCI Should Hang Its Head In Shame: By Martha Perske.
Cal/EPA based its conclusion on a discredited EPA report plus findings from five recent studies, the majority of which found no statistically significant increased risk according to Cal/EPA's own Tables 7.5 and 7.5B!
4. No Connection To Second-hand Smoke: By Warren Klass.
In her letter Ms Taylor confessed she did not understand the concept of "moral fascism." In his excellent recent book, The Nazi War On Cancer, Penn State historian Robert Procter defines it as "a political disease, requiring political solutions. The Nazi campaigns against tobacco are in some sense as fascist as the yellow stars and the death camps. The Nazis tried to create a 'secure and sanitary utopia'."
5. Tobacco Settlement Funds: State Updates: TCSG.
...information on what is happening in states regarding the almost $250 billion the tobacco industry must pay to the states over the next 25 years as a result of the settlements they have signed to resolve Medicaid lawsuits filed by the states.
6. Genetic Mutation Linked To Aggressive Lung Cancer: intelihealth.
A genetic mutation found in about 10% of lung cancers is linked to aggressive tumors and a four times higher risk of dying from the disease, according to a
report published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The mutation, called K-ras, is three times more common in women smokers than in men.
7. See U There: SmokersFightingDiscrimination.
Internet Smokers Network, Events Coordination Site.
8. We Are Everyday People:
*** Doctor: Kids On Sleds Need Helmets: infobeat.
If America's kids wear helmets when they sled, thousands of head injuries each year could be avoided, said Dr. John R. Tongue of
Tualatin, Ore. Tongue studied sled injuries for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Data compiled by the Consumer Product Safety
Commission show that around 7,000 sledders ages 16 and below are taken to hospital emergency rooms each year to be treated for head
injuries. "Forty-three percent are brain injuries and a third are serious, so you are talking about a serious problem," Tongue said.
*** Medical Errors A Major Killer: MSNBC.
Experts say between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die from mistakes every year in hospitals alone. That makes hospital errors the eighth leading cause of death — actually ahead of traffic accidents, breast cancer and AIDS.
***White House Threatens Lawsuit On Guns: BBC News.
The Clinton administration hopes that the threat of a lawsuit on behalf of some or all of the nation's 3,100 local housing authorities would motivate gun manufacturers to negotiate a settlement with 28 cities and counties that have brought similar suits against the industry.
"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it."
-- Voltaire (1694-1778)
"If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
-John Stuart Mill
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