AAFP: 'Tobacco companies should be held responsible'
Congress and the president should support comprehensive tobacco control legislation with no immunity for tobacco companies.
That's AAFP's message in the tobacco control debate -- don't shelter the industry from health-related lawsuits.
"Tobacco companies must be held accountable for their wrongdoing," said AAFP Board Chair Patrick Harr, M.D., of Maryville, Mo., in a Jan. 26 news release. "Lawmakers should not be swayed by threats from the tobacco industry to walk away from any tobacco settlement that does not protect them from their victims and from America's courts."
A settlement proposed by 40 state attorneys general and the industry would require tobacco companies to pay $368.5 billion over 25 years for public health programs but would protect the industry from class-action lawsuits, including state suits. Individuals' lawsuits would still be fair game. Congress is considering the settlement and other tobacco control bills.
The Academy contends the proposed settlement doesn't go far enough to reduce smoking. Although the proposal would financially penalize the industry for failing to meet smoking cessation goals for youngsters, the proposal has no penalties related to adult smoking patterns.
"Allowing tobacco companies to simply shift their marketing efforts from teenagers to young adults is dead wrong," said AAFP President Neil Brooks, M.D., of Rockville, Conn., in the news release. "America can't afford to leave this loophole open and let the tobacco industry create another generation of slightly older addicts."
Spreading the message
The Academy is spreading its "no immunity" message in various arenas. For example, on Feb. 17, Executive Vice President Robert Graham, M.D., met with CEOs of other organizations in the 33-member coalition, Effective National Action to Control Tobacco. Graham urged the leaders to move ENACT's policy closer to that of AAFP's no-immunity stance, and they did.
Also on Feb. 17, Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D., and Former FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler, M.D., held a press conference to publicize their letter to Congress co-signed by the Academy, the AMA, the American Lung Association, and other health advocacy groups. The letter asserts, "Congress should focus its efforts on public health, not on the concessions the tobacco industry seeks. Comprehensive legislation should not shield the tobacco industry from future liability or cover it with a blanket of financial security for decades to come."
On Feb. 18, Graham and several other ENACT representatives explained the coalition's consensus statement at a congressional briefing. The statement includes:
- no marketing to children,
- tough penalties for the industry if tobacco use by youngsters does not drop substantially,
- funds for international groups to implement tobacco controls,
- protection for tobacco farmers and their communities,
- full FDA authority over tobacco products and
- insistence that any tobacco control legislation must not weaken the rights of victims to seek compensation for their injuries.
Because a bill proposed by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the Healthy Kids Act, reflects the above points, the ENACT coalition welcomed its introduction. The administration supports the bill, which would raise cigarette taxes by $1.50 a pack over three years.
Marking progress
Three states have won settlements from the industry -- Mississippi, $62 million; Florida, $11.3 billion; and Texas, $15 billion. Early this year, as Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota pleaded their case, they introduced documents disclosing the tobacco industry's interest in young buyers and its awareness of nicotine's addictive effects.
On Jan. 30, executives from four of the nation's largest tobacco companies told the House Commerce Committee that nicotine is addictive. Four years ago, the companies' leaders all denied that statement in testimony to the committee.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1998 by American Academy of Family Physicians.