American Cancer Society Reviewing Terms of Tobacco Settlement

American Cancer Society
Friday, 20 June 1997

Washington 1997/06/20 - The American Cancer Society (ACS) has put into place a three-component process for evaluating the tobacco settlement proposal issued today by 40 states' Attorneys General and the tobacco industry. "We continue to be encoraged by the public health concepts that appear to be contained in the settlement," said John R. Seffrin, American Cancer Society CEO. "However, we will not take a final position until we complete an extensive review of all its elements."

The ACS evaluation process, the preliminary results of which should be ready for public release in a timely fashion, includes (1) a review by ACS's own staff and volunteer executive leadership; (2) a specially-convened panel of outside legal, economic and health policy experts; and (3) participation in the evaluation process by the recently- appointed Advisory Committee on Tobacco Policy and Public Health, which is an independent panel chaired jointly by former FDA commissioner David Kessler and former Surgeon General C. Evertt Koop. Seffrin is a member of this panel. "We urge the entire health community to participate in the evaluation of this settlement," Seffrin said.

"We believe it is part of our obligation as public advocates for health that we do all in our power to ensure that this settlement accomplishes extraordinary protection of our kids' health," Seffrin said. "We want a settlement that furthers our mission in bringing cancer under control as a major health problem. Every day in this country, 3,000 kids start smoking for the first time. One element of the settlement outlines goals the tobacco industry would have to meet for the reduction of these youth smoking rates. We have the opportunity to save one million lives with the smoking education and prevention efforts set out in this settlement. -- more American lives than have been lost in all the country's wars combined."

"The settlement proposal now goes to Congress and the President for ratification," Seffrin said. "We intend to monitor this process very closely, and we will work actively to ensure the elements affecting public health are sustained and supported, and this industry controlled."

For more information, or to contact American Cancer Society, see their website at: www.cancer.org