NO ANTISMOKING GROUPS SIGN "PUBLIC INTEREST" AD FAVORING TOBACCO SETTLEMENT [05/13]

A full-page ad appearing in today's Washington Post, and discussing terms upon which a settlement with the tobacco industry should be reached, wasn't signed by a single independent antismoking organization.

Moreover, conspicuously omitted from the list of signatories -- which was headed by the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society -- was the American Lung Association, an organization which traditionally has sided with the other two national health organizations on smoking matters.

"It is no coincidence that not a single independent antismoking organization signed on to the ad," says law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). "Antismoking groups -- those which devote their full resources to the problems of smoking -- are uniformly against any settlement with the industry along the lines now being discussed."

According to Banzhaf, the organizations which signed the ad devote only a small portion of their total budgets, time, and resources to the problem of smoking, unlike the growing number of antismoking organization which are solely devoted to this problem, and well known for their strong stands and numerous victories.

"The Women's Legal Defense Fund, National Middle School Association, The HMO Group, are all fine organizations, but they certainly are not antismoking organizations and have not been in the forefront of any major battles with the tobacco industry. The inclusion of these and other organizations which have virtually no background or experience in dealing with the tobacco industry on the list of groups supporting a possible settlement show just how desperate some people are to create the impression of unified support on these crucial talks."

None of the major national antismoking organizations - - Action on Smoking and Health, American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, Americans for Nonsmokers Rights, Group Against Smokers' Pollution, Foundation for a Smokefree America, SmokeFree Education Services, Stop Teenage Addiction to Tobacco, Tobacco Product Liability Group, and others -- agreed to be included, even for free, in the ad.

This is not surprising, said Banzhaf, in view of the double flipflip on the talks by the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, and recent events in which leading antismoking activists -- including Prof. Stanton Glantz and Congressmen Henry Waxman, literally had to force their way into a health- organization strategy session to which they were disinvited.

When word of a possible settlement -- one which would have granted the tobacco industry immunity from liability and freedom from new regulations by the FDA -- first broke weeks ago, the Heart, Lung and Cancer Societies quickly denounced the very idea of considering such concessions. This was despite the fact that an attorney was participating at the talks and briefing the leaders of their organizations. In other words, says Banzhaf, their shock and outrage at these terms was a little bit the police chief in Casablanca who was shocked and outraged to learn that gambling was going on its Rick's place.

An American Cancer Society news release dated 05/05/97 on PR Newswire stated that "ACS and the other voluntary health agencies have decided not to join the [settlement] talks directly. 'So that we can maintain our objectivity and properly play our role as advocates for the public in the prevention of tobacco-related disease.'" Then, in a news release dated only two days later on the U.S. Newswire, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association said they "have decided to continue with the discussions."

"Conspicuously absent from that release was the American Lung Association", says Banzhaf, which for the past twenty years has always cooperated with the Heart and Cancer Associations on issues of smoking; first through the National Interagency Council on Smoking and Health, then the Coalition on Smoking OR Health, and more recently through the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, all groups the big three health groups have dominated.

The rest of the story -- how leading activists were disinvited from a meeting to discuss "unified strategy"; how they nevertheless forced their way into the meeting, only to be met with disingenuous statements and to later be excluded again; how secret White House assurances are allegedly being given to those seeking to promote a settlement; and how other antismoking organizations which oppose settlements with the tobacco industry are being shunted aside as talks progress -- is told in detail by Prof. Stanton Glantz on ASH's Internet Web Page: http://ash.org/may97/5-12-97-1.html

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