American Cancer Society Calls for National Tobacco-Control Legislation to Protect the Health of All Americans

American Cancer Society
Thursday, 5 October 2000

The American Cancer Society, the nation's leading voluntary health organization, today told Congress that the 1998 Master State Settlement Agreement (MSA) with the tobacco industry is not a "magic bullet," with only 15 states to date allocating sufficient resources to tobacco control and prevention.

Francis L. Coolidge, Immediate Past Chairman of the national board of directors of the American Cancer Society, represented the public health community in testimony before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee regarding "Effective Tobacco Reduction Programs and the use of Tobacco Revenues from the 1998 Master State Settlement Agreement."

In Coolidge's testimony, the American Cancer Society calls upon Congress for strong, effective, meaningful regulation of tobacco products by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), adequate funding for the National Tobacco Control Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and finally, Department of Justice funding to pursue the RICO claims in fiscal year 2001 and beyond, as necessary. The nation's deadliest consumer product cannot continue to be totally unregulated and the federal government has an obligation to its taxpayers to hold tobacco companies accountable for their well-documented wrongdoing.

"Three years ago we called upon Congress to set national legislation to protect the health of American citizens from the harms of tobacco. Unfortunately, what was true three years ago, is still true today -- one in three people who dies of cancer dies because of tobacco and, despite the MSA, we are still in need of national policies to address the tobacco problem in our nation," said Coolidge. "Cancer deaths from tobacco could be prevented if our nation seriously and comprehensively addressed tobacco and made a long-term investment in a sustained campaign to prevent tobacco-related disease and death. Even the Supreme Court determined earlier this year that tobacco is 'perhaps the single most significant threat to the public health in the United States.'

"The failure of Congress to ensure that the states would spend a minimum amount of the new money on initiatives to reduce and prevent tobacco use unfortunately has resulted in a dismal record and wholesale inadequate spending by the states to address the problem of tobacco use. According to a new report produced by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and endorsed by the American Cancer Society, on average, a mere 7.5 percent of settlement money is going to tobacco control. So, for every dollar paid by the tobacco industry to the states, less than a dime is going to address the problem of tobacco use. Unless more of the settlement money is devoted to addressing the scourge of tobacco, future generations will continue to needlessly suffer from tobacco-related disease and death. This represents an extremely costly missed opportunity.

"It is important to note that only a handful of states have allocated even the minimum amount of funding recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for tobacco control, and not a single state-based tobacco control program that conforms to the CDC's best practices guidelines for tobacco control. It is a national shame that only 15 states have taken steps to reap long-lasting benefit from the largest health-related legal settlement in history.

"These disappointing results are certainly not for a lack of effort on the part of American Cancer Society and our public health partners. Since the MSA was signed, American Cancer Society staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly in all 50 states to secure adequate appropriation of tobacco settlement funds for comprehensive tobacco control programs. For the past two years, this issue has dominated our public policy agenda across the country and we have funded and executed comprehensive campaigns nationwide with a singular message to fund and implement comprehensive community tobacco control programs that meet national standards for effectiveness and demonstrate good stewardship of state dollars.

"Yet, for the most part, our calls to action for policy makers to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to end the scourge of tobacco and to decrease health care costs for generations to come have fallen on deaf ears."

"Despite the historic settlement with the states, the tobacco industry and its products continue to wreak havoc on the health of our nation. While the public health community and many of our nation's public health and policy leaders had high hopes that the settlement would be the magic bullet to our nation's tobacco woes, it is clear that we continue to have our work cut out for us."

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from from cancer, through research, education, advocacy and service.

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