Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Tobacco lay

Because an injunction “prohibits conduct under threat of judicial punishment, basic fairness requires that those enjoined receive explicit notice of precisely what conduct is outlawed.” Under this standard, we have held injunctions to be too vague when they enjoin all violations of a statute in the abstract without any further specification, or when they include, as a necessary descriptor of the forbidden conduct, an undefined term that the circumstances of the case do not clarify.
Indeed, we must always apply the fair notice requirement “in the light of the circumstances surrounding entry: the relief sought by the moving party, the evidence produced at the hearing on the injunction, and the mischief that the injunction seeks to prevent.”

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Tobacco use

In conformity with 2002 edition of World Tobacco Atlas published by the WHO, in the region of the Caribbean Sea and Central America, every year local smokers consume from 500 to 1,200 cigarettes each. Although the smoking rates among men tend to drop in recent years, this decline is very slow-going.

Moreover, generally, more educated men from the Caribbean countries do not smoke or have quit lighting up, being aware of all the negative health consequences related to smoking. Therefore, smoking is more likely to be widespread among the non-educated lower- income men.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Smoking star

Movie showing smoking - Part II

A spokesperson for 20th Century Fox, where all four series of the X-Men movie were filmed including the latest Wolverine movie, declared that Jackman's character was showed with a cigar only two times during the movie; moreover, the cigar was not ever lit.

She stated that despite the Wolverine character smokes a cigar in nearly each edition of the comic magazine, film director decided to avoid frequent showing of smoking in the movie.

The Medical Association of America, seeking to attract Hollywood tycoons' attention, recruited a truck carrying a billboard around the studios.

"Our designers have invented a poster showing an adolescent thinking, 'Which movie studios will cause me to smoke this summer?'” said the Medical Alliance executive.

Pamela Ramirez, the communications manager for Motion Picture Association declared that they have been rather delicate with the worries of parents regarding the aim of the rating systems.

She stated the Association started giving R rating to the films two years ago, responding to the changes in mentality and health complications related to teen smoking.

"Smoking has been rated similar to the factors like nudity or violence," she added.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Anti-smoking advocates push for R rating to any movie showing smoking

The rate of smoking scenes in the movies permitted to watch by the minors has not dropped although Hollywood executives promised two years ago to avoid showing smoking scenes in the films.

According to the research completed by the American Medical Alliance scientists, showing famous actors smoking encourages adolescents to try cigarettes or other the tobacco products. Therefore the Alliance urged the Motion Picture Association to give an R rating to any film containing smoking scenes.

Dr. Thomas Jefferson from California Public Health Department cited the results of a study that found out that almost a half of all underage smokers throughout the United States might be linked to seeing smoking in movies.

"Overall, 55 percent of the top films containing smoking scenes showed within the last two years were permitted to teen audience since they have been given a G, PG or PG-13 rating," he declared.

Mathew Dow, the vice chairman of the America Motion Picture Association committee that is responsible for film ratings, cited their own numbers, basing on all the 900 movies that have been rated every year, not only the top films from Davenport's statistics.

According to the Association chairman, they have not given G ratings to any film, containing at least one smoking scene after it made a pledge two years ago.

In general, more than a half of all the films rated during the last three years contained smoking scenes, however 70 percent of such movies were rated as R movies, Dow stated. 21 percent of the films with smoking were given PG-13 rating and the rest 9 percent were given PG, he added.

In conformity with the rating system, G-rated filmed is permitted for viewing for all audiences without age restrictions, whereas a PG rating tells parents that such movie can contain some scenes which are unacceptable to see for their children. PG-13, for instance, signals that the movie contains inappropriate scenes for adolescents under 13.

No minor under 17 should be permitted to watch an R-rated film alone without a parent or tutor.

Sandi Frost, chairwoman of American Medical Alliance cited "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," as the most recent and great example of a film with free smoking advertisement. The box-office success blockbuster was given a PG-13 rating since the movie contains numerous scenes of violence.

"Hundreds of thousands of teenagers have seen the principal character in the film with a cigar between his teeth," Frost claimed. "I'm more than confident that no one would have liked that film any less in case he was not dragging."