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FDA Reboots Tobacco Regulation with Harm Reduction

News, Tobacco /

On Friday, July 28, 2017, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb unveiled a revamped approach to tobacco product regulation in an announcement that surprised tobacco companies, investors, and the public health community in equal measure.  The goal, as articulated by Gottlieb, will be to regulate products so as to encourage migrating existing consumers from […]

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New Lawsuit Alleges Coca-Cola, American Beverage Association Deceiving Public About Soda-Related Health Problems

Center for Public Health Litigation, Food/Beverage Marketing, Legal Filings, Marketing Unhealthy Foods as Healthy, Press release /

Despite the scientifically established link between consuming sugar drinks and obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease, the Coca-Cola Company and its trade association, the American Beverage Association, deceive consumers by denying and obscuring soda’s link to those diseases, according to a lawsuit filed today. Bringing the action filed today in the Superior Court of

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Snowflakes Are Found in 84 Degree Richmond: The 2017 Altria Group Annual Shareholders Meeting

News, Tobacco, Tobacco Litigation /

By Edward L. Sweda, Jr., PHAI Senior Attorney As I approached the Greater Richmond Convention Center on the partly cloudy morning of Thursday, May 18, 2017, thoughts of sub-freezing temperatures and snowstorms never entered my mind.  But, before the morning gave way to the afternoon, I realized that I had just seen dozens of snowflakes. As

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PHAI Board Member Ben Kelley on Safety Implications of Autonomous Vehicles

Publications /

Ben Kelley, a leading authority on automotive safety, is a member or the Board of Director for the Public Health Advocacy Institute.  Recently he published a scholarly article and op-ed discussing the safety implications of autonomous, i.e., “self-driving,” vehicles. The article appeared in the Journal of Public Health Policy.  JPHP is co-published by another of

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PHAI Submits Comments to Support Smoke-Free Low Income Housing to MA Dept of Housing and Community Development

Tobacco /

PHAI, on behalf of the Tobacco Free Living Community of Practice (a statewide coalition organized through the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health), submitted recommendations to the  Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (“MDHCD”) for its 2017 Qualified Allocation Draft Plan and Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. MDHCD implements the federal  Law Income Housing Tax Credit

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PHAI Joins Center for Science in the Public Interest in Filing Lawsuit Against Coca-Cola for Deceptive Marketing

Center for Public Health Litigation, Food/Beverage Marketing, Legal Filings, Obesity, Press release /

BOSTON – Two non-profits that use litigation as a public health strategy have joined forces in a lawsuit accusing the Coca-Cola Company (“Coke”) along with the American Beverage Association (“ABA”) of misleading the public about the science that links heart disease, obesity, and diabetes to consumption of sugary beverages. For years, the Public Health Advocacy

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Dec. Issue of Atlantic: PHAI’s Daynard and Friedman Comment in Powerful Gambling Addiction Article

News /

In a powerful long form article by by John Rosengren covers the impact of gambling addiction and the predatory casino industry.  The article, entitled “How Casinos Enable Gambling Addicts,” details the ways that electronic gambling machines, like slot machines, along with outrageously predatory tactics used by casinos to bait problem gamblers, combine to destroy the

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PHAI’s Gottlieb Comments on FDA Regulations’ Effect on Vaping Industry on All Things Considered

News, Tobacco /

On August 8, 2016, new regulations by the FDA went into effect that have a profound impact on a major segment of the electronic cigarette industry:  vape shops.  The shops that mix flavors for vaping products are now considered to be manufacturers and subject to the same requirements as manufactures owned by the companies that

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Spending 45 Minutes with 80 of My Fellow Altria Shareholders

Tobacco /

by Edward L. Sweda, Jr. As soon as Altria Group, Inc. Chairman, CEO and President Martin J. Barrington opened the 2016 Annual Shareholders Meeting, he boasted that 2015 had been “another terrific year.”  The “excellent business results” included dividends increasing by 8.7% (to $4.2 billion) and a shareholder return of more than 23%.  Marlboro, with

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PHAI’s Daynard Discusses Tony Gwynn Lawsuit on ESPN and in the New York Times

Legal Filings, Tobacco, Tobacco Litigation /

On May 23, 2016, the widow and children of baseball great Tony Gwynn filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Altria Group alleging that the manufacturers of Skoal smokeless tobacco’s negligence, fraud, defective design, and failure-to-warn caused the death of the Hall of Famer in 2014. Richard Daynard, PHAI’s president and University Distinguished Professor of Law at

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