The Ontario Film Review Board says they will work with the group asking for an 18A (adult) rating for movies and video games that depict smoking.Dr. Hazel Lynn, Medical Officer of Health for Grey Bruce, was part of a delegation that met Friday, June 24, with the full membership of the Ontario Film Review Board to discuss rating films that show smoking or tobacco products.“We can no longer allow our youth to be deceived into believing that tobacco use is okay,” Lynn told the Ontario Film Review Board (OFRB). “Any sense of the normalcy of tobacco use is a fallacy. We need to show tobacco as the hazard it is; a killer of our children.”

I would like to congratulate Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center for instituting a tobacco-free policy on its campus. Use of all tobacco products is prohibited, including smoking, smokeless and electronic tobacco products.Guided by Project H.E.A.L., a program established by the Louisiana Tobacco Control Program to help ease the transition for hospitals as they go 100 percent tobacco-free, this policy will become effective Friday.

U.S. states and the District of Columbia showed a downward trend during the last 14 years in sales of tobacco products to minors, health officials say.However, the report by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, says there was one exception, when the average national retailer violation rate of tobacco sales to minors increased to 10.9 percent in fiscal year 2009 from 9.9 percent in FY2008.

The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) hosted the third in a series of one-hour webinars this week on federal tobacco regulations.David Racine, CTP senior program manager, moderated the “Smokeless Tobacco Product Packaging & Advertising Requirements” webinar and explained that it would provide retailers with a general overview of advertising and packaging requirements for smokeless tobacco products.