The Chicago Tobacco Prevention Project (“CTPP”) is awarding grants to several housing organizations to encourage the adoption of smoke-free policies in apartment and condos in Chicago.  The CTPP represents an effort to create more smoke-free multi-unit residential properties in Chicago as part of the project’s overall effort to reduce smoking rates and exposure to secondhand smoke. The Project is run by the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, in collaboration with City of Chicago’s Department of Public Health.  For more information: www.lungchicago.org/ctpp

The state of New York has begun enforcing its new regime for taxing cigarettes sold on Native American reservations.  The regime, enacted last summer but stalled by numerous court challenges, generally requires New York-licensed distributors to sell only tax-paid cigarettes to reservation retailers, with certain exemptions for sales to tribe members. 

Effective July 1, 2011, it is a criminal offense to sell electronic cigarettes (“e-cigarettes”) to minors in the State of Colorado.  Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed the law in March, which is codified at Colorado Revised Statutes, section 18-13-121.  The new law characterizes e-cigarettes as a “tobacco product.”  A person who violates the new law commits a class 2 petty offense, which may be punishable by a fine of two hundred dollars.  The new law also provides that municipalities may impose more stringent requirements than provided in this section of the Colorado Criminal Code.

On July 29, 2011, FDA issued a final rule to establish procedures for requesting exemptions from the substantial equivalence requirements of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.  Unfortunately, despite the vague statutory language regarding such exemptions, and numerous industry requests for more clarity regarding such exemptions, the final rule provided almost no guidance.

A recently completed study by research firm IBISWorld has concluded that the new graphic labels, which were just released by the FDA and include images of rotting teeth and corpses, will result in a decline of less than one percent in overall U.S. tobacco revenues in 2013, the date when the new labels must be used.

In the wake of the FDA’s release of new graphic cigarette health warnings that must cover the top fifty percent of both the front and rear panels of each cigarette package as of September 2012, the four leading tobacco companies are threatening legal action, claiming the required warnings violate their property and free speech rights.

South Carolina is the latest state to introduce legislation aimed at the filtered cigar industry.  Filtered cigars generally look like cigarettes, except that filtered cigars are wrapped in tobacco or paper containing tobacco.  As a result, the outer wrappings of filtered cigars are brown.  However, filtered cigars are often packaged like cigarettes, in packs of 20, and cartons of 10 packs.

As reported in the Boston Globe, the City of Worcester seems to be among one of the first localities to take advantage of powers provided  by the federal 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.   That Act allows not only states but also localities to impose “specific bans or restrictions on the time, place and manner” of cigarette advertising.  The Worcester City Council, taking advantage of such provisions enacted a local ordinance banning any tobacco brand advertising visible from streets, parks and schools.   The initiative for the City Council action was a mounting campaign by teenagers who had statics regarding not only the health effect of smoking but also how outdoor advertising was concentrated in low-income communities, especially in communities of color.

On April 25, FDA announced that it will regulate smokeless electronic cigarettes (“e-cigarettes”) as tobacco products and not as drug-delivery devices, which are subject to more stringent regulation.  FDA said it will propose rule changes to treat e-cigarettes the same as cigarettes and other tobacco products.  While FDA regulation is coming into focus, uncertain issues involve how state and local governments will regulate e-cigarettes.  It is critical that e-cigarette manufacturers and vendors gain an awareness of this rapidly changing regulatory landscape.