1997_10 The Daily Collegian October 1997

              Cigar industry escaping
bad press of cigarettes
By Patricia Zengerle
Reuter
MIAMI r— The American holy
war against tobacco, which has de-
moni/.cd Joe Camel and made hun¬
dreds of lawyers rich, has left out
the biggest, smelliest and most styl¬
ish form of the weed- ■*- the agar
Cigarette makers have been lac¬
ing ever-stricter health warnings, a
Hood of personal-injury lawsuits
and been forced to negotiate a $36X
billion "global" settlement with
slate attorneys general looking to
. recoup Medicaid costs.
But cigar makers have had it
easier. They face no obligation to
put health warnings on their prod¬
ucts and have been left out of the
settlement talks and major litiga¬
tion.
"People weren't thinking about
it (the cigar boom). Even the pub¬
lic health people were surprised, or
caught napping." said Patricia
Davidson, a staff attorney at North¬
eastern University's Tobacco Prod-
Today, the magazine, thick with
ads for a wide range of luxury prod¬
ucts, has a circuit* >n of about
410,000, Morti "
But cigars' poy ..arity has a dark
side. Though generally considered
less of a health threat than ciga¬
rettes, cigars bring risks Of their
own They have been tied to can¬
cers of the mouth, nose, larynx and
esophagus, and increased rates ol
lung cancer and coronary artery
problems
"Some of these larger cigars
contain about as much tobacco as a
pack of cigarettes." said Dr
Michael Cummings. senior re¬
search scientist at Roswell Park
Cancer Institute in Buffalo. NY
"On average, when you actually
look at weight of tobacco it basi¬
cally works out to five cigarettes,
according to the average cigar that's
being sold or smoked."
And though, cigar smokers do
not inhale, medical experts note that
cigar smoke, unlike cigarette
ucts. Liability Project, who has been     smoke, is absorbed into the body
studying the cigar industry. through membranes in the mouth.
I booming.
The cigar business
Sales in the
United States
reached $1.6
billion last year,
with as much of
$800 million of
that spent on top
of the line "pre¬
mium" stogies.
A number of
companies arc
jockeying to ex¬
pand in the busi¬
ness. Last month Spain's leading to¬
bacco manufacturer, Tabacalera
SA, said it was buying three cigar
firms in the Americas for $367 mil¬
lion, in an aggressive effort to grab
a share of the growing market.
Last week. General Cigar Hold
ings, the largest U.S. marketer of
premium cigars, began \he mass
rollout of its version of Cuba's fa¬
mous Cohiba cigar, timed to take
advantage of the booming cigar
market.
"So far this year, industrywide
sales of premium cigars arc 100
percent above year-ago
levels,"Davidson said. General Ci¬
gar President Edgar Cullman Cigar
paraphernalia — an Alfred Dunhill
cigar cutter costs a cool $395 —
also is. booming. One of Princess
Diana's last gifts to boyfriend Dodi
Al Fayed was a gold cigar clipper
with a gold tag inscribed "With
Love from Diana."
"Cigars have recaptured their
traditional image as a symbol of
success, celebration and achieve¬
ment," said Norman Sharp, presi-
"So far this year,
industrywide sales of
premium cigars are 100
percent above year-ago
levels."
Patricia Davidson
Staff attorney at Northeaster
University's Liability Project
"Ulysses S. Grant was a cigar
' smoker.    He
died of mouth
cancer,"
Cummings
said.
"Sigmund
Freud died of
mouth cancer
caused by ci¬
gars."
Doctors
  also guessed
that cigar-re¬
lated health problems would be¬
come more prevalent as cigar
smoking becomes more common.
And they said studies have shown
that cigars, long associated with
men aged 40 or over, are attracting
more younger, and female, smok¬
ers.
Tobacco attorneys said-it was
only a matter of time before cigars
joined cigarettes as the subject of
tobacco lawsuits, given their grow¬
ing popularity and the success of
cigarette lawsuits.
"It's going to cause a lot of law¬
yers to consider litigation, with ev¬
eryone pushing it." said Florida at¬
torney Stanley Rosenblatt.
Rosenblatt and hisWife. Susan,
are in the midst of the first class
action suit against cigarette makers
to go to trial. The Rosenblatts rep¬
resent thousands of tlight attendants
suing cigarette firms over health
problems they blame on breathing
secondhand smoke on airplanes.
After the flight attendants' case,
the lawyers arc set to litigate Engle
R.J. Reynolds, a case filed on
News
THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Friday, October 3,1997
Paying respect
Ryan Weber — The Daily Collegian
Sudarshan Kapoor, professor of social work education, speaks to a crowd Wednesday in
the Peace Garden for the celebration of Gandhi's 128th birthday
Acne medicines may cause bacteria
UPI
TORONTO — Bntish research¬
ers say long-term use of antibiotics
to treat acne not only may not
work, but apparently create skin
bacteria resistant to several power¬
ful drugs.
Scientists in Toronto, at an in¬
fectious disease meeting of the
American Society for Microbiol¬
ogy, report that 64 percent of pa¬
tients with recurrent acne problems
harbor bacteria that are resistant to
medications.
Trish Coatcs, a researcher at
University of Leeds, says. "The re-
on to others through contact, which
means that even people who
haven't received antibiotics treat¬
ment for acne will develop resistant
bacteria to the antibiotics used in
ireating acne."
Coates says that people are
treated with antibiotics typically for
8 to 12 years.
Marilyn Roberts. professor in
pathobiology at the University of
Washington School of Public
Health and Community Medicine.
Seattle, s'ays, "Long-term treatment
with antibiotics is insane That's the
best way to develop bacterial resis-
iistant bacteria can also be passed    tancc."
Coatcs says, in her study she
found that the bacterium.
Propionibacteria acnes, had devel¬
oped resistance to widely-used an¬
tibiotics erythromycin, tetracycline
and clindamycin; several colonics
of resistant bacteria could be found
in each patient.
P. acnes causes the redness
around acne lesions
Roberts says doctors and pa
tients need to be educated further
that long-term use ot antibiotics for
treating acne can cause more diffi¬
cult problems down the road by cre¬
ating P. acnes populations that can't
bc.trcated.
dent of the Cigar Association of    behalf of all sick smokers in
America.
"We believe that a cigar is part
of. is a way to, enjoy life. It's part
of the good life, if you will." said
Gordon Molt, managing editor of
Cigar Aficionado, a glossy and
much- imitated magazine credited
with fueling the cigar boom since
its founding in 1992.
Clintons dealing with loss of Chelsea
Florida.
The Rosenblatts said they had
already been asked to take on the
case of a cigar smoker with lung
cancer, although they turned it
down. "It's hard to imagine how
those (cigar) products could be dis¬
tinguished in a way that would
completely protect them (from
suits)." Davidson said.
UPI
WASHINGTON — First lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton says she
and the president miss their daugh¬
ter, Chelsea, now a freshman at
Stanford University in California,
but they are busy with travel and
official duties.
Asked if the president was cop¬
ing with the empty nest, press sec¬
retary Mike Mccurry said the
Clintons "obviously miss their
daughter tremendously" but arc
coping well.
McCurry says Clinton seems to
be doing all right. "He's talked a
little hit about rattling around the
place. But they actually have been
enjoying getting used to their new
life and their new routine." he said
"And. obviously, they miss their
daughter tremendously, but she's
having a great time as near as I can
tell. And I think the Clintons are
enjoying their ..."
When a reporter interjected with
the word "freedom." McCurry said:
"Maybe that's not ihc right
word But I think they're coping
and coping well."