About half of the millions of dollars in fees that will pay for the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of tobacco products will come from Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc. The FDA this week started collecting fees from the nation’s tobacco companies to fund the agency’s newly created Center for Tobacco Products. The user fees, which will be collected quarterly, are based on each company’s share of the U.S. tobacco market.

The federal ban on flavored cigarettes took effect yesterday, marking one of the first visible signs of the Food and Drug Administration’s new authority to regulate tobacco. The ban on manufacturing, importing, marketing and distribution includes candy-, fruitand clove-flavored cigarettes, which health and federal authorities say are more appealing to youth. It does not include a ban on menthol or other flavored tobacco products such as cigars—issues that the FDA is studying.

Sharing a ride with a smoker will give you a much heftier dose of nicotine than having a meal in a restaurant that allows smoking or hanging out at a smoky bar, according to new research.

Philip Morris USA plans to make a bigger push into the still-uncertain market for snus, a Swedish-style oral tobacco, expanding an experiment it is now running in three cities. The nation’s No. 1 cigarette-maker will market snus, using its flagship Marlboro brand name, more broadly this fall, said Michael E. Szymanczyk, chairman and chief executive of Philip Morris’ parent, Henrico County-based Altria Group.

A California jury decided yesterday that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA should pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer. The Los Angeles County Superior Court jury voted 9-3 in favor of Jodie Bullock, who is now the plaintiff in the case filed by her mother eight years ago. Betty Bullock of Newport Beach, who smoked Philip Morris-made Marlboro and Benson & Hedges cigarettes for 45 years, died of lung cancer in February 2003.

Philip Morris USA has started test-marketing roll-your-own cigarette tobacco, its first venture into that market. This summer, the nation’s No. 1 cigarette-maker started selling pouches and canisters of L&M brand tobacco in Maine and Michigan, spokesman Bill Phelps said. “It’s a very small market, but it’s growing fast,“ he said.

As of this morning, Philip Morris USA’s Richmond manufacturing plant is the only site where the company makes cigarettes.

California: The Bullock case. A Los Angeles court is rehearing a claim for punitive damages in light of a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Oregon case against Philip Morris (the Williams case) that held punitive damages can’t be calculated based on harm to people who aren’t parties to a lawsuit.
The Whiteley case. Philip Morris is appealing a 2007 verdict that a smoker’s illnesses the company caused resulted in $2.5 million of financial loss to the smoker. In 2007, a jury ruled the smoker was not entitled to punitive damages.

Federal health officials said yesterday that they have found cancer-causing ingredients in electronic cigarettes, despite manufacturers’ claims the products are safer than tobacco cigarettes. The Food and Drug Administration said testing of products from two leading electronic cigarette makers turned up several toxic chemicals, including a key ingredient in antifreeze.

The colors are green-on-dark green, but the iconic chevron still is there as Philip Morris USA launches yet another version of Marlboro. The nation’s biggest cigarette maker’s newest Marlboro variety—its 15th—is called Blend No. 54, a menthol-flavored cigarette with a tobacco blend that Philip Morris spokesman Bill Phelps described as having a richer, bolder taste. The green-on-green boxes have been showing up in stores in recent weeks.

The U.S. government’s new tobacco regulations spell out the words, size and color of new cigarette warning labels—but despite much publicity about tough new warnings, don’t expect to see any for three years.

Philip Morris USA has put some of its South Richmond and Chesterfield County properties up for sale as the tobacco company cuts costs and consolidates its operations in a smaller U.S. cigarette market. The Henrico County-based company is seeking to sell more than 570,000 square feet of office, laboratory, warehouse and manufacturing space just off Bells Road, on property adjacent to its cigarette plant off Interstate 95.

Under new regulations, snuff and cigars will have to go behind store counters, where cigarettes are now kept. How the different products share that space will be a challenge for tobacco companies.

The new law would allow the FDA to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban candy flavorings and block labels such “low tar” and “light.“ Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.

Even under the watchful eyes of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, tobacco companies such as Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc. will have opportunities to thrive, some industry observers say. That’s because the legislation passed by Congress this week giving the FDA authority to regulate the industry leaves some doors open for tobacco companies to innovate, and even to make health claims about products, something they cannot do now.