Washington, D.C., June 28, 2005
– “We strongly object to the apparent politicization that led to the Justice Department’s court filing yesterday to formally seek only a mere fraction of the penalties recommended by one of the department’s own experts in its lawsuit against the tobacco industry to obtain crucial funding for smoking cessation programs. We echo the deep disappointment of other members of the public health community in reaction to the government’s request for $10 billion to finance a plan to help Americans stop smoking, in addition to $4 billion for a 10-year anti-smoking campaign. This amount is a mere blip in the movement to fight the nation’s leading cause of death and an inadequate penalty against an industry that has been charged with contributing to the demise of hundreds of thousands of people each year. Americans deserve and should receive better.
“While we do agree in theory with the effectiveness of some of the remedies proposed by the government, such as the appointment of an independent investigative officer to monitor industry behavior and the imposition of fines on companies if firms fail to meet targets for reducing youth smoking rates, we fear that these may be fanciful proposals if they are derailed by political interference or are not adequately funded. As the maxim states, you get what you pay for, but in this case, we’re taking an extremely precarious gamble with the lives of thousands of our nation’s residents. Approximately $2.4 billion a year will be spent in the Justice Department’s proposed plan compared to the $12.5 billion that tobacco firms spend each year in marketing alone. That $2.4 billion is further dwarfed when you consider that tobacco use kills more than 400,000 people each year and costs our nation a massive $75 billion in direct health care costs. Tobacco products are virtually unregulated and, every day, hundreds of children become tobacco users.
“Thousands of Americans face a health crisis every time they light a cigarette, and they deserve a well-funded plan to educate them and others who may be tempted to smoke on the dangers of tobacco and ways to avoid a debilitating, and possibly fatal, addiction. We can only hope that the health needs of Americans will one day prevail over the deceptive, deadly marketing of tobacco. It is now up to U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler to ensure that there is equity in funding for a life-saving plan of action.”