NEWSCANCER

Music fans are slamming Provo, Utah-based Neon Trees -- famous for their No. 1 hit “Animal” -- for playing an international music festival sponsored by a tobacco company despite winning an award for anti-cigarette advocacy

More than 1,000 music fans have signed an online petition on Change.org asking Provo, Utah-based Neon Trees to pull out of an international music festival sponsored by a tobacco company.

The band, famous for their hit “Animal” -- which has been performed on the TV show Glee -- won an award for anti-tobacco advocacy in 2008 -- yet they are slated to perform at Indonesia’s Java Rockin’ Land festival July 22-24, sponsored by Gudang Garam, one of Indonesia’s largest tobacco companies.

Mother Jones magazine reports that the band has ignored a campaign by Marita Hefler, a PhD candidate in Public Health at the University of Sydney asking them to cancel their appearance at the concert. Hefler started her petition on Change.org, the world’s fastest-growing platform for social change demanding that Neon Trees - as well as Good Charlotte, The Cranberries and other bands pull out of the festival, which features scantily-clad models distributing cigarettes for free to concert-goers.

Think of your favourite band or singer. Chances are that you not only know their songs, you also know their favourite products. Whether it’s a clothing label or perfume, a car or a phone, the products they advertise are part of their image. You might even know about their favourite social causes – as the face of a charity which supports sick kids, a supporter of cancer or AIDS research, or a champion of the environment.

For kids in Indonesia, the product most often tied in with international musicians is cigarettes. The reason? Most major music events are sponsored by big tobacco.

The latest bands lining up as part of an Indonesian event being sponsored by a company selling the world’s most lethal drug include U.S. musicians 30 Seconds to Mars, Good Charlotte, Neon Trees, We are Scientists and Ed Kowalczyk, Irish band The Cranberries, and U.K. bands Happy Mondays and Blood Red Shoes. The event is Java Rockin’ Land festival, Jakarta from July 22 to 24 and will attract tens of thousands of Indonesian young people. Sponsored by cigarette company Gudang Garam, the festival is 3 days of top music delivered with a blast of tobacco promotion.

It seems like a logical win-win plan to fight cancer. The California Cancer Research Act is advocating to raise the excise tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1 in a voter referendum scheduled for the next statewide ballot.

If approved, the initiative could raise between $600-$750 million per year for cancer research, education and smoking cessation programs for California residents. The vote could be as soon as June if there is a special election, otherwise it would appear on the February 2012 ballot. So, smokers paying for research and education that may save them in the long run seems to make sense, except to one group: cigarette makers.

Seven-time Tour de France winner and cancer survivor, Lance Armstrong, joined the cause last month. "Well, I continue to be a person, as a cancer survivor, who hates this disease," said Armstrong. "I hate cancer. It's real simple. And no matter what we have to do in any state, in any country, to help fight the disease, then we'll do it."

At a meeting this week to discuss California Department of Pesticide Regulation's (DPR) controversial approval of methyl iodide, a leading toxicologist said that science was "subverted"  in the process and that health repercussions will be significant.

In a hearing before the California Assembly Committee on Health and Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials, John Froines, a professor of environmental science at UCLA's School of Public Health and chair of California's Scientific Review Panel, said "it is painful for me personally and professionally to have to report the science was subverted in the DPR approval."

A fumigant used to control bacteria, pests and weeds from growing in the soil, methyl iodide was introduced as a substitute for methyl bromide, which causes damage to the ozone layer. Methyl iodide doesn't harm ozone but is considered to be much more toxic to health.

According to the National Library of Medicine, methyl iodide is toxic to the liver, and workers have developed central nervous system poisonings after exposure. Its considered an acute pulmonary irritant that can cause chronic neurological symptoms after a heavy dermal exposure.

After receiving  letters from over 180 Change.org members concerned about tobacco sponsorship of an upcoming Indonesian concert, Maroon 5 and their management moved quickly to have the tobacco company's name removed from all posters and advertising.

Maroon 5's management informed Change.org that the band does not have a direct sponsorship agreement with Surya Professional Mild, an Indonesian brand of clove cigarettes, but that the entire concert series was sponsored by the company. After learning from the petition that the band's name was being used in conjunction with tobacco advertising, Maroon 5's management contacted the tour promoter, Java MusikIndo, to immediately cease the use of the Surya brand in the promotion of the concert, scheduled for April 27th.

According to an email the management company received from Adrie Subono, president of Java MusikIndo, the Surya concert series sponsorship "will be pulled immediately and we apologize for any negative attention towards Maroon 5."

Update: On February 21st, after receiving  letters from over 180 Change.org members concerned about the tobacco sponsorship, Maroon 5 and their management moved quickly to have the tobacco company's name removed from all posters and advertising. Maroon 5's management informed Change.org that the band does not have a direct sponsorship agreement with Surya Professional Mild, but that the entire concert series was sponsored by the company. After learning from the petition that the band's name was being used in conjunction with tobacco advertising, Maroon 5's management contacted the tour promoter, Java MusikIndo, to immediately cease the use of the Surya brand in the promotion of the concert.

Last year, a group of performing artists, including Maroon 5, made a video for the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. The bands were helping to promote a new youth program, called Yroswell, that encourages all young people to get connected and help create a world without cancer.

It seems ironic then, that after using their name to advocate for cancer awareness among youth, Maroon 5 is now helping to promote to youth a leading cause of cancer -- cigarettes. Surya Professional Mild, an Indonesian brand of clove cigarettes, is sponsoring the band's upcoming tour in Jakarta, using the Maroon 5 name to help promote and sell their product.

John Baker, a tobacco researcher in Australia, says that Maroon 5 is one of his favorite bands and the sponsorship prompted him to launch a petition on Change.org, asking the band to drop the cigarette sponsors. "It is obviously very disappointing from a fan's perspective that a band you have a lot of passion and interest for then becomes involved in promoting a deadly product."

Clear air? Who needs it. Clean water? Totally overrated. Protected wilderness? For wimps.

This seems to be the message the GOP is sending this week, as they added amendments to the government's spending bill that would end environmental protections in all these areas and significantly reduce the EPA's power to enforce pollution control.

The amendments carry significant -- and scary -- risks to health. Already, H.R. 1, which would fund the federal government through September, proposes to cut the EPA's budget by one-third. According to the American Lung Association (ALA), it specifically prevents the EPA from enforcing or issuing rules under the Clean Air Act, which aims to prevent air pollution and related diseases.

The amendments to the bill go even farther, blocking the updating of air pollution standards, preventing limits on hazardous pollutants, including mercury, and limiting rules on toxic coal ash.

Over the course of seven months, a small group of protesters stood in front of various CVS stores in Washington, D.C., holding up signs with a simple yet powerful statement: "CVS sells poison."

The "poison" is something most of us are accustomed to seeing at check-out: cigarettes, chew, cigars. CVS, like other major pharmacies, promotes and sells tobacco products, while simultaneously dispensing medication designed to treat tobacco-related diseases. This conflict of interest is one that activists are hoping to point out to the stores, customers and lawmakers.

The "CVS Sells Poison" campaign was started by the folks at the Toxic-Tobacco Law Coalition. In addition to their protest, they've also made a "CVS Sells Poison" music video on YouTube, sung by the talented 13-year-old Sofia Roma. The chorus includes: "CVS sells poison/Just like the other drug chains/Distributing cigarettes far and wide/Causing heart disease, cancer and pain."

Inside the stores, they turned the camera to the CVS Pharmacy counter, where a staged customer asks for advice about how to safely use two products sold in the stores: a popular over-the-counter heart burn medicine and cigarettes.

Will one of the smokiest states in the country finally clear its air?

Advocates are hoping so. Yesterday, the American Heart Association and citizen activists staged a rally at Kentucky's state capitol, urging lawmakers to pass proposed legislation that would ban smoking in all indoor public places.

The ban would be a huge move in the Bluegrass State, which has the third highest smoking rate in the country. The American Lung Association recently gave Kentucky an "F" for their anti-smoking efforts and the state ranks number one in teen smoking. Twenty-seven percent of pregnant women smoke, twice the national average.

Currently, there is no state-wide law protecting workers and citizens from secondhand smoke, though some cities and counties have passed indoor smoking legislation.

Most people walk in to a pharmacy to pick up medication to treat a disease, or purchase toothpaste or band-aids. In general, consumers trust pharmacies to sell items related to health. But what if there was a product on your pharmacy's shelves that was responsible for over 400,00 deaths a year and was the number one cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S.? Maybe you'd wonder why it hasn't been removed yet.

Ryan Madanick, a gastroenterologist who specializes in esophageal diseases, wonders the same thing. He started a petition on Change.org urging two of the largest chain pharmacies -- CVS and Rite Aid -- to stop selling a product that directly results in disease and death  -- tobacco.

For Madanick, it's not about banning the sale of tobacco products or imposing new laws. It's not about regulating people's smoking. Instead, it's the sheer hypocrisy that a place charged with promoting the health of its patrons would sell something so contradictory to this mission.