Tobacco Documents Online

i rumor, and it's very unlikely." Whatever happens, Miles insists he's happy just hanging out. "In the news coverage of my departure, someone said I was going to play golf and go to Italy. It never occurred to me to go to Italy." And he doesn't know how to play golf. But this summer, with time on his hands, he says he'll learn. "Letters to the Editor: Insidious Smoke" Wall Street Journal (07/12/94) P. A15 Nicole Bisagni of Pompano Beach, Fla., writes in a letter to the editors of the Wall Street Journal about Rep. Thomas Bliley's "inane comment, comparing smoking to skydiving, skiing, and shooting the rapids," which appeared in the June 23 edition of the paper. Bisagni complains that Bliley is ignoring the fact that those sports "do not have negative health effects on innocent people." She writes her letter from an office building that bans smoking from public places, and claims that she will return "home tonight with smoke in my hair and on my clothes, and the lethal mark of tar on my lungs." Evidently, smoke drifts up from lower floors through the air vents to her office. Bisagni closes her letter by making this point: "The tobacco industry claims smokers have rights. Do 1 not have a right to eat, work, and play without constantly being subjected to the noisome and deadly secondhand smoke?" "Obituary--Reynolds" Associated Press (07/12/94) Richard Joshua Reynolds !!f, grandson and namesake of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s founder, died on June 28 in Pinehurst, N.C., at the age of 60. His half-brother Patrick Reynolds, an anti-smoking activist, claims that Reynolds died of emphysema and congestive heart failure caused by smoking, but that could not be independently verified. Reynolds was a philanthropist, the founder of Full Sky Publishing, a company dedicated to publishing work by young writers, and produced the film "Siddhartha," based on the Herman Hesse novel. He also founded the Sufi Institute in New Mexico. The Sufi Foundation camp is located near Torreon, N.M., and is based on the beliefs of the Muslim movement of Sufism. Reynolds' wife, Marie, died earlier this year. The couple had no children. "U.K. Eyes TV Ban on Tobacco-Sponsored Sports" Advertising Age (7/11/94) London--A parliamentary committee is demanding a ban on national TV coverage of tobacco-sponsored sports events after current contracts expire. The committee's goal would be to extend the ban to I I

a ds-o9io -1/cso , incoming satellite transmissions. Commercial networks ITV and Channel 4 stopped broadcasting such events, and the BBC pledges not to renew contracts. Members of the U.K.'s Tobacco Manufac- turers Association spend about $14 million annually to sponsor sports events. "Japan Tobacco Offering May Test the Tokyo Market" Wall Street Journal (07/12/94) P. Cl; Hardy, Quentin Japan Tobacco, the world's fourth-largest tobacco company, will undergo privatization in August. Although the company is Japan's sole producer of tobacco products, has an 82 percent market share and, unlike the United States, has not been slapped with any health- related lawsuits, Japan Tobacco is losing market share to cheaper foreign competitors and possesses no profitable non-tobacco busi- nesses. Many analysts are skeptical about Japan Tobacco's long- term allure. "The company has hopes and dreams rather than concrete plans for new business. It's a negative growth company," says David Jensen, analyst at Smith Barney, Shearson International.