JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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To determine whether declines in tobacco product sales significantly reduce employment in the United States, as the tobacco industry claims. ⋯ Contrary to the tobacco industry's claims, reductions in spending on tobacco products will boost employment in every one of the 8 nontobacco regions and will not diminish employment in the Southeast Tobacco region by as much as the industry estimates. The primary concern about tobacco should be the enormity of its toll on health and not its impact on employment.
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In 1994, Baltimore, Md, became the first city to generally prohibit billboards from displaying alcohol and tobacco advertisements. The owner of most of Baltimore's billboards, Penn Advertising, sued, but the federal district court rejected the billboard company's complaint and ruled that the First Amendment had not been violated and that the federal cigarette labeling acts had not preempted the ability of Baltimore to regulate and prohibit billboard cigarette advertising. ⋯ States and municipalities command broad authority to protect children and to shield the public from intrusive forms of advertisement that inflict their messages on a captive audience. A billboard ban thus offers local communities a legal avenue to help curb the rising tide of juvenile smoking without raising taxes, creating bureaucracy or angering smokers.