Tobacco industry adapts to world of fewer smokers

Source: The Tennessean Author: Anita Wadhwani By any name or variety you choose — call it snuff, dip, chew or plug — smokeless tobacco is making a comeback, and Tennessee farmers, factory workers and consumers are playing a major role in the renewed buzz. Farmers here and in Kentucky who once made a good living off raising burley tobacco for cigarettes have had to eliminate 40 percent of acreage devoted to that crop as demand has declined, while farmers who cultivate the dark tobacco used for chewing have been able to expand their fields by 22 percent in three years. Now, the massive marketing muscle of the nation's biggest tobacco companies — Altria Group and its subsidiary Philip Morris USA, which owns the 100-year-old U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. factory within view of the state Capitol, and R.J. Reynolds, which runs its smokeless operations out of a Memphis factory — are battling for market dominance. Together, the two manufacturers already control 90 percent of the American smokeless tobacco sector with brands such as U.S. Smokeless' Skoal and R.J. Reynolds' Kodiak. They're competing with new fruit- and mint-flavored products (some packaged to look like miniature cigarette packs) to attract a new generation of consumers and entice ex-smokers looking for nicotine- infused alternatives. Former cigarette smokers like Dave Kenner, 31, a construction worker making a pit stop at a West Nashville convenience store last week, said he switched to Red Seal Wintergreen smokeless because heavily taxed cigarettes cost too much — nearly $300 [...]

2011-02-04T12:24:02-07:00February, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

First wrongful death settlement from chewing tobacco won by plaintiff

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A smokeless tobacco company has agreed to pay $5 million to the family of a man who died of mouth cancer in what the family's attorney and an expert called the first wrongful death settlement from chewing tobacco. Attorney Antonio Ponvert III told The Associated Press on Tuesday that U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. agreed to pay $5 million to the family of Bobby Hill of Canton, N.C. "This company manufactures and sells a dangerous and defective product that it knows causes addiction, disease and death in consumers who use it as intended," Ponvert said. The company, which makes Copenhagen and Skoal brands and was headquartered in Greenwich, Conn. before it was acquired by Altria last year, confirmed the settlement in a regulatory filing, but declined further comment. Mark Gottlieb, director of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern School of Law in Boston, said he believes it's the first case of its kind and predicted more lawsuits involving smokeless tobacco. "I think this is sort of a wakeup call to the plaintiff's bar that there are a lot of victims of smokeless tobacco use out there and it's possible these cases can be successful," Gottlieb said. Past lawsuits against smokeless tobacco makers were not successful and lawyers focused more on cigarette makers due to stronger evidence to back up their claims even though smokeless tobacco is harmful as well, Gottlieb said. "The cigarette is sort of the dirty needle of nicotine delivery," Gottlieb said. Tobacco [...]

2010-12-08T09:15:35-07:00December, 2010|Oral Cancer News|
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