The Tobacco Toll
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“What happened in 1998 will either be remembered as a year of lost opportunities or as a year that a strong foundation for future tobacco control action was established.  The key is what happens next.  The states must invest their tobacco settlement funds wisely, and Congress must implement a national policy to reduce the pediatric epidemic of tobacco use among kids.  The stage is now set; we cannot lose this unique opportunity.”

-- Matthew Myers, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

1998 was a watershed year in the tobacco wars.  It began with the hope that Congress would enact the most sweeping legislation to reduce tobacco use in history, but the effort was thwarted by a massive campaign by the tobacco industry.  Nonetheless, 1998 will be seen as a year of important firsts and as a building block for significant change in the future.

Tobacco legislation became one of the year’s biggest news stories as the President and the Congress considered tough restrictions on the tobacco companies, which the industry bitterly opposed.  At the same time, previously secret industry documents proved what the tobacco companies had long denied:  that they researched, targeted and market to kids.  After weeks of acrimonious debate, the Senate narrowly defeated Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) tough anti-tobacco bill on a procedural vote. 

When state Attorneys General saw what happened in Washington, they went back to the negotiating table, where they had been in 1997, to settle their Medicaid cases with the tobacco companies for $206 billion  another stunning development that assured that tobacco will once again be a major battleground in 1999.

“No one could possibly have imagined all the twists and turns the tobacco issue would take in 1998,” said Bill Novelli, president of the Washington, DC-based CAMPAIGN FOR TOBACCO-FREE KIDS, the largest non-governmental initiative ever undertaken to reduce tobacco use in the United States.  “While national legislation was beaten back, the increased awareness of the issue, new revelations of the industry’s manipulative marketing and tobacco’s impact on health have helped propel us toward greater protection of kids from tobacco.”

Several milestones shaped the year’s debate on tobacco.   The high-water mark occurred on April1, the day the Senate Commerce Committee voted in favor of the McCain bill, which gave complete authority to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate nicotine as a drug; raised the cigarette tax by $1.10/pack; and included penalties for the industry if specific targets for reducing youth smoking levels were not met.  This set the stage for the unprecedented full Senate debate.

The very next day, new government data underscored the urgency for immediate action:  smoking among U.S. high school students had increased by one-third during the last six years  from 27.5 percent in 1991 to 36.4 percent in 1997.

The tobacco industry, which for years had provided generous campaign contributions to members of Congress in an attempt to purchase influence, lobbied hard against the McCain tobacco bill and launched a multi-million dollar campaign against it.  The industry changed the debate from “protecting kids” to a “tax increase and big government” issue.  Although President Clinton himself lobbied for the bill, the industry’s friends in the Senate narrowly killed it on June 17.

“For years, the tobacco industry has won fights in Washington by throwing money at politicians and hiring high-priced lobbyists and advertising experts.  The McCain bill’s defeat was no exception,” said M. Cass Wheeler, CEO of the American Heart Association.

Within weeks, the industry would win another victory.  On August 14, the U.S. 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FDA had no jurisdiction to regulate nicotine or the tobacco companies' marketing practices or even the sale of tobacco products to kids.  The government plans to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.  If Congress does not act, the Supreme Court’s ruling will be crucial. 

The year closed with yet another dramatic development; on November 16, the $206 billion settlement between 46 states and the tobacco industry  the largest financial recovery in the nation's history  was announced.

The settlement, negotiated by the state Attorneys General and the industry, settled all pending state cases against the industry aimed at recovering damages for the billions of dollars in state Medicaid funds spent on treating tobacco-caused illnesses.

“While a step forward in protecting public health, the settlement is not a substitute for a national policy.  Nor can it effectively counter the industry’s billion dollar marketing campaigns,” Wheeler said.  When announcing the settlement, the AGs called for Congress to do what they could not, and pledged to help pass national legislation in 1999.

The state settlement does not address important areas:  FDA authority to regulate tobacco products; making tobacco less accessible to children; more effective and visible health warnings; and U.S. tobacco companies’ overseas marketing to youth.

The state settlement does not require that any of the funds be used by states to reduce tobacco use.  When state legislatures convene in 1999, they must decide how to spend their settlement dollars.  Novelli and others point out that the states must earmark a significant  and adequate  portion of these funds to discourage tobacco use and help smokers quit.  “State public health advocates already are battling a flood of special interests that will attempt to divert the tobacco funds to other purposes as we also prepare to push for Congressional action in 1999,” he said.

While the road to protecting kids from tobacco took some surprising turns, significant progress has been made.  “What happened in 1998 will either be remembered as a year of lost opportunities or as a year that a strong foundation for future tobacco control action was established.  The key is what happens next.  The states must invest their tobacco settlement funds wisely, and Congress must implement a national policy to reduce the pediatric epidemic of tobacco use among kids,” said Matthew L. Myers, executive vice president and general counsel of the CAMPAIGN.  “The stage is now set; we cannot lose this unique opportunity.”