Snowflakes Are Found in 84 Degree Richmond: The 2017 Altria Group Annual Shareholders Meeting
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 […]
PHAI Board Member Ben Kelley on Safety Implications of Autonomous Vehicles
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 […]
Tobacco Free Generation
The Tobacco-Free Generation policy initiative is a path toward eliminating the addiction, disease, and premature deaths caused by tobacco industry products. Tobacco Free Generation is simple: No one born in or after a certain date, like the year 2000, can ever be sold tobacco products including cigarettes. Enforcement is simple because the date of birth […]
PHAI Submits Comments to Support Smoke-Free Low Income Housing to MA Dept of Housing and Community Development
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 […]
PHAI Joins Center for Science in the Public Interest in Filing Lawsuit Against Coca-Cola for Deceptive Marketing
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 […]
Dec. Issue of Atlantic: PHAI’s Daynard and Friedman Comment in Powerful Gambling Addiction Article
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 […]
PHAI’s Gottlieb Comments on FDA Regulations’ Effect on Vaping Industry on All Things Considered
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 […]
Spending 45 Minutes with 80 of My Fellow Altria Shareholders
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 […]
PHAI’s Daynard Discusses Tony Gwynn Lawsuit on ESPN and in the New York Times
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 […]
May 5, 2016 – a RAIny day in Winston-Salem
By Edward L. Sweda, Jr. When Reynolds American International (RAI) President and CEO Susan M. Cameron told the company’s 2016 annual shareholders meeting that it is “always a pleasure to report good news,” this shareholder was reminded of a similar message: “Alive with Pleasure.” That ubiquitous advertising slogan for Newport cigarettes […]
