Millions of Reasons to Ban E-Cigs

[rothenbj]

There is good reason to make sure E-Cigs and other non-smoking tobacco products don't replace cigarettes in the marketplace for our "Health" Organizations.

Below are the salaries (based on figures between 2008 and 2010, mostly 2008) for the various CEOs in our favorite organizations. The total I came up with is $7.5M, but currently probably closer to $10M if 2010 figures were available. Remember, this is only salaries. Who know what other "benefits" may be available to those with the most to offer for their services.


Matthew Myers, CFTFK $248,000
Bernadette Toomey, ALA Wash HQ $365,000
Charles J White, ALA SE Region $112,486
Marina Cofer-Wildsmith/Michael
Alderson, ALA Alaska, Idaho, Wash. $ 98,000
James Wilgus, ALA California $213,527
Sandra Holman, ALA Alabama $ 98,000 est.
Deborah Carioto, ALA New York $137,000
Jeff Seyler, ALA New England $145,000
Susan Fratt, ALA Oregon $116,258
Sarah Dreiling, ALA Central States $186,888
Louise Vetter, ALA NY City $148,500
Kathy Fackler, ALA Mid-Atlantic $145,300
Martha Bogdan, ALA Southeast $173,077
Leon Matthews.Karen Lackey,
Formerly ALA Arkansas $ 77,000
Tracy Ross, ALA MidAtlantic $146,599
Enrique Chiock, Formerly ALA
Los Angelis County $144,080
Margo Leathers Sidener, Formerly
ALA California Bay Area $ 95,647
Linda Civitello, Formerly ALA
Golden Gate Area $127,836
Joel J Africk, formerly ALA Metro
Chicago Area $212,574
John F Banzhaf III, ASH $226,500
Nancy Brown/Cass Wheeler
American Heart Association $1,537,000
C Charles Stokes, CDC Foundation $253,719
Cheryl Healton, Amer. Legacy Found. $760,000
John Seffrin, Amer. Cancer Society $685,885
Donald Thomas, ACS Deputy CEO $1,027,306

Totals (Based on Annual Salarys
Between 2008-2010) $7,635,706

Not quite professional athlete numbers, but not bad for non-profits.

I loved this article from the Ohio Supreme Court trial brought on by ALF-

Ohio court weighs use of tobacco money | The Journal Gazette | Fort Wayne, IN

I love the paragraph-

"Several national groups are urging the court to reverse the state’s 2008 action. They include the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society and the Campaign for tobacco-Free Kids."

 

[CES]

I've been looking for jobs in all the wrong places.

 

[rothenbj]

I've been looking for jobs in all the wrong places.

You're not the only one, I might have to un-retire and get me one of those jobs. I think I know the company line by now for any of them, "not a safe alternative to smoking", "DEG in the liquid", "TSNA's found", "Marketed to Children", "We don't know what's in them" and "They're made in China, for god's sake". Okay, ready for the interview.

 

[ezmoose]

You forget to list Al Capone, Frank Nitti, and Charles "Lucky" Luciano! lol

 

[whiskey]

And most of our government Officials......

 

[DaveP]

Ignorance is sometimes buffeted by greed or ulterior motive. These people most definitely do have reasons for not wanting to legalize something that might actually cause people NOT to smoke cigarettes.

When the B&W and Phillips Morris case was decided and tobacco money began to come in from the settlement legislators were supposed to spend this money on advertising and other methods to discourage youth smoking. It got channeled in other directions.

Philip Morris U.S.A. Makes Tobacco Settlement Payment; Calls on States to Spend More Settlement Funds on Programs to Help Prevent Youth Smoking. | Legal > Civil Procedure from AllBusiness.com

In 1998 the settlement was made and Phillip Morris alone has paid in $9 billion since 1998. Together the tobacco companies will pay more than $200 billion in 25 years and the payments continue in perpetuity, according to the article.

Quote from the article:

"Philip Morris U.S.A. strongly encourages state legislators to spend a significant portion of these funds on youth smoking prevention efforts," said Carolyn Levy, Senior Vice President of Youth Smoking Prevention, Philip Morris U.S.A. "We are disappointed that, to date, more states have not taken advantage of the opportunity to use these funds to support programs that can help reduce youth smoking."

 

[rothenbj]

Ignorance is sometimes buffeted by greed or ulterior motive......

Reading your link started bring up inconsistencies with my memory, so I did a bit of searching of "the news"


[SIZE=+2] [/SIZE]

[SIZE=+2][/SIZE]

[SIZE=+2]Tobacco settlement is a done deal[/SIZE]

NEW YORK - The $206 billion tobacco deal has won unanimous support from the states, and the industry has indicated it will sign the biggest U.S. civil settlement Monday, the lead state negotiator said Friday.

''It's a great day for attorneys general,'' said Christine Gregoire, attorney general for the state of Washington and the leader of the state negotiators. ''Joe Camel and his ilk are in intensive care and will be gone by April.''

The deal is designed to resolve remaining state claims for health costs of treating sick smokers.

The announcement from Gregoire came after the midday deadline passed for states to act. Gregoire led a team of eight states through five months of negotiations with four big tobacco companies.

Massachusetts and Maryland, which had been considered potential defectors from the multistate agreement, were among those that waited until the last minute to sign on.

The settlement calls for companies to make payments to 46 states over 25 years and finance antismoking programs in exchange for resolving remaining state health-care claims for smokers.

''Quite frankly, there are many things that this agreement accomplishes, particularly in the public health arena, that we could not achieve through our lawsuit in Georgia,'' state Attorney General Thurbert Baker said today. Georgia would get about $4.8 billion over 25 years.

Four states had reached their own settlements for a combined $40 billion before this proposal was created.
The cigarette makers had said without specifying a number that they needed a sufficient number of states to sign in order to proceed with the settlement.

In exchange for payments over 25 years starting in the year 2000, the states would drop lawsuits that had posed an enormous legal and financial threat to the tobacco industry.

In addition to paying the states, the tobacco companies will spend $1.7 billion to study youth smoking and finance antismoking advertising and accept curbs on marketing practices that critics say appeal to children.

Those practices include putting cartoon characters in ads, advertising on billboards and putting cigarette brand names on shirts, hats and other merchandise.

Antismoking advocates were unhappy that the deal extracted fewer concessions from the industry than a broader $368.5 billion agreement reached in 1997 that later died in Congress. The American Lung Association released a copy of a letter from former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop urging Maryland's attorney general to reject the settlement.

But some of them felt the latest proposal was a step in the right direction and began pushing Congress to enact legislation that would among other things give the Food and Drug Administration authority over cigarettes.

For state attorneys general, the choice was to take the deal with the billions of dollars that would come with it or fight the tobacco companies in court for a better deal while risking the chance of losing.

The companies waiting word from the states are Philip Morris Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. and the Lorillard Tobacco Co.

States announcing support for the settlement on Thursday were Alaska, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Washington D.C. also announced its support late Thursday.

Other states that already have agreed to the terms are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin. States that settled earlier are Florida, Minnesota, Mississippi and Texas.


By The Associated Press

Emphasis added

In exchange for these payments by the tobacco industry, the attorneys general absolved BT of any future class action litigation leaving any citizen the right to sue "individually" for product liability.

So the deal was designed to resolve remaining state claims for health costs of treating sick smokers. Was it resolved for only formerly sick smokers or future sick smokers? Apparently, 12 years later, they didn't include future sick smokers in their thought process when they were eying this windfall. However, as in actuality, current smokers have been paying for the MSA all these years as well as the ever increasing taxes on the product they did shift all the responsibility to the smoker. He/she is the medical liability that is responsible for health care crises. The perfect opportunity- responsibility without authority.

But wait, there is that second statement- "The settlement calls for companies to make payments to 46 states over 25 years and finance antismoking programs in exchange for resolving remaining state health-care claims for smokers." Doesn't remaining infer future as well as current at that time?

For $1.7B and 12 years, if they were going to get the kids to stop smoking, you'd think they would have accomplished it, if it's possible, Yes there are a lot less kids smoking if you believe their numbers. Perhaps that's what is increasing the numbers on children obesity? Or maybe, the kids that would be smoking now just found cheaper, easier to obtain alternatives like P...., H.... or E.......

At least I stopped making payments to this lunacy.

 

[harmony gardens]

Whew, I really have missed the boat. Just think, all you gotta do is spew out your disgust at smokers, pretend you're protecting children, and you too, can live on easy street.

''It's a great day for attorneys general,'' said Christine Gregoire, attorney general for the state of Washington and the leader of the state negotiators. ''Joe Camel and his ilk are in intensive care and will be gone by April.''

The deal is designed to resolve remaining state claims for health costs of treating sick smokers.

They aren't caring for sick smokers, they take the money and run, and are feeding thier sick death wish.

 

[Mr.Self_Destruct]

Well ecigs kill millions annually.




















???What's that??

They don't?

Oh that's right...

 

[rothenbj]

Well ecigs kill millions annually.
???What's that??

They don't?

Oh that's right...

I'm really surprised that lie hasn't been fabricated yet, CDC's probably working on it as we speak. Dr. BPfan, please add a note on the medical records of anyone that every tried an electronic cigarette among your patients, JoeE Camelstik, a former smoker for 60 years dies of skin cancer after two weeks smoke free on his PV. CDC reports first death caused by the deadly E-Cig. All news outlets report.

In all seriousness. With the billions that BT is paying (TRANSLATED SMOKERS ARE PAYING) the government in the form of the MSA and in taxes, there should be a little money available to honestly test a product that could reduce many of the issues related to cigarettes.

Instead the government spends millions to fight the product in court. The "Health" organizations fight the states, again costing millions in court, to get their share of the tobacco money (THE SMOKERS MONEY) for the good fight against smoking/tobacco/nicotine.

$1.7B to study youth smoking and pay for quit smoking advertising (THE SMOKERS MONEY).

Yet nobody is willing to find and/or fund and/or report the truth about alternatives that could seriously reduce the desire to inhale smoke. I shall never cease to be amazed.

 

[Bill Godshall]

I've known, collaborated with and mentored many/most of the folks listed by rothenbj during the past 25 years campaigning for smokefree workplace laws, reducing tobacco marketing to youth, raising cigarette tax rates, preserving civil justice remedies for injured smokers, and appropriating funds for smoking prevention and cessation programs (much of which went to CTFK/ACS/AHA/ALA and the American Legacy Foundation)

But while I've been working without pay for most of the past 20 years, it appears that many others have been getting paid very well to misinform the public about smoking, tobacco, nicotine, e-cigarettes, etc.