Antismoking Group Targeted by Tobacco Industry

Antismoking Group Targeted by Tobacco Industry Says: "No Apology"

Asks All Newspapers Running Philip Morris Ads to Help Prevent Distortions

The antismoking organization singled out by the tobacco industry as primarily responsible for the FDA's proposals to regulate cigarettes -- although not for the "spiking" allegations -- refuses to issue the apology Philip Morris is seeking in full-page ads running today in many major newspapers.

Instead, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) calls on those newspapers -- and others in the press --to prevent any distortions with regard to ABC-TV's apology by making clear that it has nothing whatsoever to do with the evidence upon which the FDA is basing its jurisdiction over cigarettes.

In ads trumpeting ABC-TV's apology for saying that Philip Morris "artificially spikes" or "fortifies" its cigarettes with externally-added nicotine, the tobacco giant says: "As for the group of people who eagerly embraced the 'spiking' allegation to serve their ongoing crusade against the tobacco industry -- we stand ready to accept their apologies as well."

The tobacco companies have placed a major portion of the blame for the FDA's comprehensive proposals to regulate the nicotine in cigarettes --as it has long regulated nicotine in chewing gum and nicotine patches -- on Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a national legal-action antismoking organization.

For example, its complaint against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) charges that ASH's "threats," "pressure," and "a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign" were behind the agency's action.

The FDA's legal analysis for asserting jurisdiction over cigarettes also relies upon new legal principles established by ASH in the federal courts.

But ASH says that no apology is necessary because their complaint to the agency, and the agency's conclusion that it has jurisdiction over cigarettes, does not depend on any claim that the industry spiked cigarettes with nicotine.

"If the industry intended --desired and sought to promote --the addictive effects of nicotine, cigarettes can be regulated, regardless of whether or not more nicotine is added, or less nicotine is removed, from cigarettes."

The documentary and other evidence before the FDA, and revealed in newspaper articles, during congressional hearings, and on the floor of the House of Representatives, provides overwhelming evidence of this intent, argues law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of ASH.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 24, 1995

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CALL: John Banzhaf (202) 659-4310

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