PROPOSED TOBACCO BAILOUT PROPOSAL SHOWS INDUSTRY'S DESPERATION, BUT IS UNACCEPTABLE IN ITS CURRENT FORM [08/26]

A legislative proposal to protect the tobacco industry from most pending and future law suits, in return for an annual $6- 10 billion payment and their acceptance of the FDA's restrictions on sale and advertising to teens, indicates how desperate they are, but is totally unacceptable.

"It's as if someone demolished your car, and then offered to buy you a new steering wheel," says law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

He notes that cigarettes cause over $100 billion in annual damages, something which will continue for many years, and has been going on during the coverup and conspiracy plaintiff attorneys charge the tobacco industry has been engaged in for at least thirty years.

In any event, he noted, a lot of that payment would come simply from the increase in stock prices likely to result from any announcement that the industry is protected from the most damaging law suits they are now facing.

Incorporating the FDA's rules in the form of federal legislation would be an important step, says Professor Banzhaf, since it removes any argument that the agency did not have the authority or jurisdiction to take such a step.

"Obviously, Congress has the authority and jurisdiction to act."

Any legislative deal would also mean that the tobacco industry would not challenge the resulting agreement in court, says Banzhaf.

"In 1971, when I helped get cigarette commercials banned on radio and television, the tobacco industry went along with the deal because it got rid of most of the antismoking commercials which were causing consumption to plummet. As a result, when the ban was challenged on constitutional grounds, the tobacco industry didn't join in the challenge, and their absence was decisive.

Banzhaf said that he and the remainder of the antismoking community would strongly oppose any deal along the lines that the industry is now apparently proposing.

Banzhaf's legal action played a major role in the FDA's decision to regulate teen smoking. Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is a national legal-action antismoking organization.

ASH - ACTION ON SMOKING AND HEALTH 2013 H Street, NW / Washington, DC 20006 / (202) 659-4310