tobacco industry

WUSTL anthropologist Peter Benson’s new book, Tobacco Capitalism, examines the impact of the transformation of the U.S. tobacco industry on farmers, workers and the American public. The book reveals public health threats, the impact of off-shoring, and the immigration issues related to tobacco production, specifically in the rural, traditional tobacco-growing areas of North Carolina. “There are whole groups of people — farmers and farm workers — in our society who dedicate themselves to growing a crop that is vilified,” Benson says.

The FDA, through the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, is considering banning outdoor tobacco product advertising at various distances from schools and playgrounds. The tobacco industry is challenging these rules on First Amendment grounds, arguing that they would lead to a near complete ban on tobacco advertising in dense urban areas. A new study by the Center for Tobacco Policy Research (CTPR) at Washington University in St. Louis found that a 1000-foot buffer would still allow for tobacco ads. Smaller buffer zones of 350 feet may result in almost no reduction of outdoor tobacco advertising.

Robert K. Jackler, MD, spoke at the School of Medicine March 9 about his exhibit that shows how the advertising industry used medical science to promote cigarette smoking in the 20th century.

Robert K. Jackler, M.D., the Sewall Professor and Chair of otolaryngology and associate dean at Stanford University School of Medicine, has gathered advertisements using doctors to promote cigarettes into an exhibit that will be on display in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center and the Bernard Becker Medical Library beginning Monday, March 1 through Friday, April 30. He also will give a free, public lecture at noon Tuesday, March 9, in Connor Auditorium.

Don’t be fooled by a company’s recent attempt to market smokeless tobacco as “harmless,” says Douglas Luke, Ph.D., professor and director of the Center for Tobacco Policy Research at the Brown School. “Part of what we’re seeing here is the tobacco industry trying to position smokeless tobacco products so that they either do not come under the new Food and Drug Administration regulations or they come under weaker regulations,” Luke says.