Newsclips 1997 - 2000

Tobacco critic grandson of R.J. Reynolds founder speaks at university

156 words
27 March 1997
10:36 pm
Associated Press Newswires

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - The key to preventing underage cigarette smoking lies in stopping campaign contributions from tobacco companies to their political allies, says a grandson of the founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

"The reason we have the lowest cigarette tax in the industrialized world ... is because of the millions of dollars that flow into the hands of our elected leaders from tobacco companies," Patrick Reynolds, an anti-smoking crusader, said Thursday at George Mason University.

"The more an elected official receives from the tobacco companies, the more likely he is to vote with the tobacco companies' point of view," said Reynolds, who delivered the keynote address before about 60 people at the school's annual student-sponsored Health and Fitness Challenge.

Reynolds heads the non-profit Foundation for a Smoke-Free America. He is a frequent critic of tobacco company advertising.

Rush

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AREA/STATE

BLAME IS CLEAR-CUT, SAYS TOBACCO FOE LEAF FIRMS' AID TO POLITICIANS BLASTED

Paul Bradley Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
527 words
28 March 1997
Richmond Times-Dispatch
City
A-13

The key to stamping out underage smoking lies in stanching the flow of campaign contributions from tobacco companies to their political allies.

So said Patrick Reynolds, a grandson of the founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and now a leading anti-smoking crusader, during a speech yesterday at George Mason University.

"The reason we have the lowest cigarette tax in the industrialized world . . . is because of the millions of dollars that flow into the hands of our elected leaders from tobacco companies," Reynolds said. "The more an elected official receives from the tobacco companies, the more likely he is to vote with the tobacco companies' point of view."

Reynolds delivered the keynote address before about 60 people at GMU's annual student-sponsored Health and Fitness Challenge. While his family's name has long been associated with the tobacco giant, Reynolds heads the non-profit Foundation for a Smoke-Free America and is a frequent critic of tobacco company advertising and marketing methods.

Yesterday, he aimed some of his sternest criticism at Virginia Attorney General James S. Gilmore III. The Times-Dispatch reported yesterday that Gilmore had flown to New York aboard a Philip Morris Co. jet last week to attend a fund-raising event sponsored for him by the tobacco and food giant, during which he raised $50,000 in donations for his expected campaign for governor.

"How a man who runs for public office can take money from the tobacco companies, and claim to represent the people, just befuddles me," said Reynolds, who admitted he is a partisan Democrat.

Gilmore supporters said the Republican has vowed to enforce anti-smoking laws and defended the fund-raising event as looking out for Virginia's economic future. Tobacco is the state's largest cash crop.

But Reynolds said, "The great majority of the people in Virginia do not work for the tobacco companies. He is not representing the people of Virginia when he flies to New York or opposes the FDA tobacco regulations. You can only assume that the tobacco contributions had something to do with it."

Reynolds' talk came a day after it was reported that the Federal Trade Commission had voted to investigate whether R.J. Reynolds Co. was unlawfully targeting young people through its "Joe Camel" advertising campaign for Camel cigarettes. And it followed last week's settlement by the Liggett Group of smoking-related lawsuits filed by 22 states.

Reynolds applauded the FTC's move and said he believes all tobacco advertising should be banned.

"Cigarettes are the only product that when used as intended causes massive disease and addiction," he said. "All of the other products, when used as intended, whether its alcohol or cars, are safer."

Reynolds, who never worked in the tobacco business, said he believes his grandfather, were he alive today, would support efforts to stamp out smoking. "I think my grandfather is somewhere up in heaven, saying, `Patrick, I didn't know smoking would kill millions of people. You are doing a great thing.' "

(lko)

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LOCAL

TOBACCO HEIR ASSAILS INDUSTRY THAT MADE HIS FAMILY RICH

DAVE ZUCHOWSKI
476 words
1 April 1997
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
SOONER
A-3

After his parents' divorce, Patrick Reynolds didn't see his father for six years.

When he finally saw him, the man was lying on his back and dying of emphysema caused by a lifetime of smoking the very cigarettes that had made the Reynolds family rich.

Patrick Reynolds, the grandson of tobacco company founder R.J. Reynolds, was only 9 years old, but that image stuck with him for a lifetime.

"My only memories of my father, R.J. Reynolds Jr., are of a man always short of breath, increasingly sick and frail, and counting the time he had left to live."

He recalled that story last night as he spoke to small audience about the benefits of a tobacco-free society at the Natali Performance Center at California University of Pennsylvania.

The talk was part of the college's Noss Lecture Series.

During the hourlong speech, Reynolds spoke on how tobacco companies market cigarettes to teens, and he addressed the new federal rules on selling tobacco to minors.

"Sixty to 80 percent of the time, children can purchase tobacco over the counter," he said. "Many of the ads are directed toward children.

"For instance, the image of the camel with sunglasses playing pool with bikini-clad girls."

He said he embarked on his anti-smoking crusade after his father and oldest brother died of diseases caused by smoking.

During last night's address, Reynolds said America had failed to regulate the tobacco industry largely because millions of the dollars it contributed to political campaigns.

In 1986, Reynolds said he learned first-hand that money meant access when a friend of his, a political donor, invited him to visit Washington. There, they and 130 other political contributors received the "red carpet" treatment, Reynolds said.

Eventually, he brought his anti-smoking message to the American Lung Society. At the time, laws banning smoking in public places were sweeping the nation, and Reynolds was besieged by news media to speak on the subject.

Since then, he has appeared on such shows as Oprah, Larry King Live, ABC Nightline and American Journal. He has also been profiled by Time and Newsweek.

Last night, Reynolds said he advocated placing a much higher tax on cigarettes.

Most industrial countries, for example, tax cigarettes at a rate of $2 per pack. In America the tax is an average of 58 cents per pack, Reynolds said.

Yet, in America, the country spends $22 billion in medical costs in treating cigarette-related illnesses. That, he said, averages $2 per pack.

"The tobacco industry claims that smoking is a matter of personal choice," Reynolds said. "This is not true, because cigarettes are just as addictive as heroin.

"There is no freedom in slavery to nicotine addiction."

Dave Zuchowski is a free-lance writer.

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Daybook

425 words
7 April 1997
11:59 pm
Associated Press Newswires

--- Tuesday, April 8 ---

EVENT: Gov. Lincoln Almond makes economic development announcement

TIME: 9 a.m.

LOCATION: Economic Development Corp., 1 W. Exchange St., Providence

CONTACT: Eric Cote, 277-2080

EVENT: Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco tycoon R.J. Reynolds, speaks against smoking.

TIME: 9 a.m.

LOCATION: Bishop McVinney Auditorium, Providence

CONTACT: Brenda Farrell, 598-1063

EVENT: News conference to announce annual statistics on calls to Rhode Island Rape Crisis Center and Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

TIME: 10 a.m.

LOCATION: parking lot at the old University of Rhode Island CCE site near Statehouse, Providence

CONTACT: Karen Jeffreys, 467-9940

EVENT: African Peace Tour speakers, sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, at three colleges

TIME: noon at Community College of Rhode Island, 1 Hilton St., Providence;

3:30 p.m. at University of Rhode Island, Chafee Room 277, South Kingstown;

7 p.m. at Brown University, Barus & Holley Building, 184 Hope St., Providence

CONTACT: CCRI, Nancy Abood, 825-2181

EVENT: local and national release of "Mean Streets: Pedestrian Safety and Reform of the Nation's Transportation Law" by Sierra Club

TIME: 2 p.m.

LOCATION: corner North Main Street and Doyle Avenue, Providence.

CONTACT: 521-4734

--- Wednesday, April 9 ---

EVENT: Fishers' Forum on how to meet needs of fishing families

TIME: 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

LOCATION: URI Coastal Institute, on Narragansett Bay, Narragansett

CONTACT: Edward Sanderson, 277-2678

EVENT: Chef Paul Prudhomme will prepare Cajun food during Distinguished Visiting Chef demonstration

TIME: 9 to 11 a.m.

LOCATION: Johnson & Wales University, 265 Harborside Blvd., Providence

CONTACT: Linda Beaulieu, 598-2919

EVENT: Press briefing of education spending software sponsored by Education Commisioner Peter McWalters, in advance of its presentation to General Assembly hearing

TIME: 10 a.m.

LOCATION: Department of Education, Shepard Building, Room 501

CONTACT: RSVP to Marisa Quinn, 277-4600, x2195

EVENT: Wellness Fair

TIME: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

LOCATION: Johnon & Wales University, Plantations Auditorium, 8 Abbott Park Place, Providence

CONTACT: Marian Gagnon, 598-1157

EVENT: Secretary of State Jim Langevin holds news conference on defunct state rules and regulations

TIME: 2 p.m.

LOCATION: Senate Lounge, Statehouse

CONTACT: Peter Kerwin, 277-2357

EVENT: Pawtucket Mayor Robert Metivier to testify before House Finance Committee on amendment for equal education for all children

TIME: 2 p.m.

LOCATION: Statehouse

CONTACT: Ken McGill, 728-0500 x356

EVENT: Former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson speaks

TIME: 8 p.m.

LOCATION: Brown University, Salomen Center for Teaching, Room 101

CONTACT: Linda Mahdesian, 863-2476

Rush

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R.J. Reynolds tobacco heir pleased with anti-smoking successes

By PAUL TOLME
Associated Press Writer
619 words
9 April 1997
07:57 am
Associated Press Newswires

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Patrick Reynolds, a tobacco heir turned anti-smoking crusader, is cheering a proposal to raise the federal cigarette tax.

"Non-smokers are paying the health care costs of smoking in the form of higher insurance premiums," Reynolds said Tuesday after speaking to students at Johnson & Wales University. "It's time for smokers to pay their way."

The 43-cent per-pack increase proposed this week by Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would raise money for children's health insurance.

The cigarette tax was just one of the topics on Reynolds' mind during his visit to Johnson & Wales, where the grandson of tobacco baron R.J. Reynolds spoke to 50 students.

He is cheered by indications the federal government may sue R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the company that enriched his family. The Federal Trade Commission is to decide within several months whether to sue the company for its use of the successful Joe Camel cartoon ads.

"It's a great development," he said. "Joe Camel clearly appeals to children and teen-agers."

R.J. Reynolds, the nation's No. 2 cigarette maker, has steadfastly denied accusations the Joe Camel ads target children.

Criticizing cigarette makers is nothing new for Reynolds, 48, of Beverly Hills, Calif. A former smoker who tried to quit 12 times, he sold his R.J. Reynolds stock in 1979 and began his campaign in 1986.

He lost two family members to emphysema: his father, R.J. Reynolds Jr., in 1964, and his older brother, R.J. Reynolds III, in 1994.

"I'm proud that I'm using the tobacco-based inheritance against youth smoking," he said after his 45-minute presentation.

No immediate family members have worked in the tobacco company for more than 50 years, but he said relatives initially were concerned about the value of their stock when he announced his intention to lobby for tougher anti-smoking laws.

During his presentation, he told stories of friends and family members who have died of cancer, and beamed spoof cigarette ads onto a screen behind him. One poked fun at the KOOL brand, showing a goofily dressed man beside the word FOOL. Another mimicked the suave, sunglasses-wearing Joe Camel, instead showing a hairless Joe Chemo in a hospital bed.

"That's my favorite," he said with a chuckle.

In addition to the various new labeling requirements for cigarette companies, Reynolds hopes more personal lawsuits against the tobacco companies will succeed.

People, most often children, have been lured into smoking because of deceptive ads, he said. Tobacco company arguments that smoking is a personal choice doesn't apply when children are involved, he said.

"I think both the smokers and the tobacco companies have to be accountable," he said.

Several students thanked him for his work.

Steven Nickerson, 21, a Johnson & Wales junior and a nonsmoker, said he admired Reynolds' decision to sell tobacco stock. Even so, he doesn't feel smokers or their family members should sue the cigarette companies.

"I wouldn't sue," he said. "I have a lot of family members who smoke, but I think it's up to them."

Reynolds has been increasingly sought out by the national media as anti-smoking lawsuits have progressed and the federal government has tightened its grip around the industry. His family may not support everything he does, but Reynolds said he is bringing honor to the name.

"I think my grandfather is up in heaven, and my father, too," he said. "And they're saying `We're proud of you, Patrick."'

Urgent

AP Photo

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NEWS

CAMPAIGN AGAINST CANCER

37 words
9 April 1997
The Toronto Star
Final
A2

The Toronto Star)

AP PHOTO: PATRICK REYNOLDS, GRANDSON OF THE LATE TOBACCO MAGNATE R.J. REYNOLDS, URGES UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN PROVIDENCE, R.I. YESTERDAY NOT TO SMOKE AND TO SUPPORT FEDERAL EFFORTS TO REDUCE TEENAGE SMOKING.

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Top US cigarette makers in secret settlement talks ...

652 words
16 April 1997
Agence France-Presse

Top US cigarette makers in secret settlement talks

(ADDS details, background)

NEW YORK, April 16 (AFP) - Top US cigarette makers are in secret talks on a wide-ranging settlement to cover the tobacco industry's liability in pending and future lawsuits, officials said Wednesday.

"There have been intense negotiations over the past three weeks," a spokesman for the Mississippi attorney general said.

Those negotiations have concentrated on advertising restrictions as well as government regulation over the tobacco industry, the spokesman, Trey Bobinger, told AFX news agency.

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, said the talks "represent an extraordinary turning point in the four-decade-long controversy over cigarettes' toll" on the health of smokers.

Officials in several states confirmed that settlement talks were in progress and the White House said it was "monitoring" those negotiations.

Most refused to elaborate on details of the talks as reported by the Journal. The newspaper said a settlement could include payment to tobacco-lawsuit plaintiffs of 300 billion dollars over 25 years.

Cigarette makers would also agree to tight regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and advertising controls under which they would cease using people -- including that world-renowned icon, the Marlboro Man -- in ads.

In exchange, Philip Morris Cos., RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. and other cigarette makers are seeking shelter from a rising tide of lawsuits filed by individuals and state governments over damage to smokers' health.

The overall settlement under discussion would require an act of Congress, the report said.

The tobacco industry has close and long-standing ties to the Republican Party, which now controls Congress, so any deal with the tobacco industry's imprimatur would likely win easy approval from legislators.

The plan would also need approval from President Bill Clinton.

White House spokesman Michael McCurry acknowledged that negotiations between tobacco industry leaders and the 22 states that have filed lawsuits against the industry were taking place, but gave no details.

"There's been contact on and off," McCurry said. "I don't know whether we're close to a settlement or not."

Suggesting a measure of White House support for the deal, however, McCurry reiterated Clinton's long-held aims of stamping out smoking by young people and obtaining FDA regulation of tobacco products.

Both Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco have previously shown interest in a possible overall settlement to the lawsuits.

In a statement, the attorney general for the midwest state of Minnesota -- one of the plaintiffs -- said the tobacco industry had so far not gone far enough toward redressing the "tremendous harm" it has inflicted on smokers.

"This is a desperate industry that is on the ropes in court, and it hopes throwing smokers' money at the problem will make it go away," Attorney General Hubert Humphrey said.

"I have insisted from the beginning that any resolution of the tobacco lawsuit require the industry to change the way it does business, pay for the tremendous harm its illegal conduct has caused, and disclose the truth.

"Everything the tobacco industry has discussed to date falls short of the mark," the statement said.

Patrick Reynolds, the grandson of R.J. Reynolds and current director of the California-based Foundation for a Smokefree America, said "it would be a very good thing" if the tobacco industry agreed to government regulation.

But he was doubtful that 300 billion dollars would be enough money to compensate victims of smoking.

"Three hundred billion dollars is a drop in the ocean compared to what they (cigarette makers) might have to pay if the attorneys general will see these suits through in court," Reynolds said.

"We have a moment of tremendous opportunity, and if we settle now we may look back well into the next century, when the tobacco companies are doing business as usual, and see this as a lost opportunity."

bur/cb/pfm

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(new series)

625 words
17 April 1997
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON, April 17 (AFP) - Reports that US cigarette makers are holding secret talks on a broad settlement to cover the tobacco industry's liability in pending and future lawsuits send tobacco stock soaring on Wall Street.

Shares of RJR, parent of R.J. Reynolds, rose 3.25 dollars -- more than 10 percent -- to close at 33.50 dollars, while Philip Morris, the top US cigarette maker, gained 4.12 1/2 dollars to close at 43.12 1/2.

Investors acted on the belief the pending agreement would shield the tobacco industry from massive lawsuits by state governments and individuals.

The secret negotiations, begun three weeks ago, could include payment to tobacco-lawsuit plaintiffs of 300 billion dollars over 25 years, advertising restrictions and government regulation over the tobacco industry.

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, said the talks "represent an extraordinary turning point in the four-decade-long controversy over cigarettes' toll" on the health of smokers.

Officials in several states confirmed that settlement talks were in progress and the White House said it was "monitoring" those negotiations.

Under the exploratory deal, cigarette makers would agree to tight regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and advertising controls under which they would cease using people -- including that world-renowned icon, the Marlboro Man -- in ads.

Twenty-two states have filed suit against the tobacco companies. One small company, Liggett, settled with the states in mid-March.

The overall settlement under discussion would require an act of Congress, the newspaper report said.

The plan would also need approval from President Bill Clinton.

"There's been contact on and off," McCurry said. "I don't know whether we're close to a settlement or not."

"This is a desperate industry that is on the ropes in court, and it hopes throwing smokers' money at the problem will make it go away," Attorney General Hubert Humphrey said.

Some anti-tobacco activists noted that 300 billion dollars over 25 years was a drop in the bucket for an industry with revenues of 45 billion a year, and insignificant compared to the estimated 50 billion to 100 billion the country spends annually in smoking-related injuries.

Patrick Reynolds, the grandson of R.J. Reynolds and current director of the California-based Foundation for a Smokefree America, said "300 billion dollars is a drop in the ocean compared to what they (cigarette makers) might have to pay if the attorneys general will see these suits through in court.

bur/fgf/job

afpr000020011005dt4h00fye

Metro

Eateries say smoking proposal harmful to their health

Scott Huddleston Express-News Staff Writer
680 words
30 April 1997
San Antonio Express-News
Alamo
1B

A proposed ordinance that could force many local restaurants to either ban smoking or spend thousands of dollars to accommodate smokers has raised concerns about possible damage to the city's tourism industry.

That's nonsense, counter non-smokers' rights groups, which say arguments against the proposal are without merit.

``The tobacco industry likes to promote some flawed reasoning that people are going to go out of business if these kinds of laws are adopted,'' said Elva Yanez, policy manager for the Berkeley, Calif.- based Americans for Non-smokers' Rights.

``That's sort of bogus rationale,'' Yanez said.

Ordinances like the one proposed have been implemented in other U.S. cities but usually not without a fight from local restaurants, Yanez said.

Those against the proposal promised a big turnout when City Council votes Thursday on the issue.

Hit hardest would be local independent restaurateurs who can't afford to install new walls and ventilation systems to sequester smokers from nonsmokers, said San Antonio Restaurant Association President Douglas Workman.

``It gives the large chains that have the money to spend a decided advantage,'' said Workman, who expected local smoking-rights advocates and representatives of the hotel and retail industries to also voice opposition to the proposal when it comes before the council.

Under the ordinance sponsored by City Councilmen Robert Marbut Jr. and Bob Ross, food establishments would have until Oct. 1 to limit smoking only to areas with ventilation systems that clean the air every 15 minutes, or in separately enclosed areas with separate heating and cooling systems.

The other option would be to ban smoking altogether, which Workman said could be damaging for a local restaurant industry that generates an estimated $550 million annually.

``That's a huge chunk of change to be playing with,'' he said. ``This doesn't help level the playing field, either. A lot of the smaller restaurants have single-room areas.''

For those operators, costs of at least $5,000, and possibly many times that, would be incurred in construction costs - not to mention losses from downtime during renovation - to meet the minimum requirements of the ordinance, he said.

``You're talking about a year's worth of additional profits,'' he said.

The Tower of the Americas Restaurant, which Workman manages, sits more than 600 feet high, is a historic landmark and has a 200-foot- wide ceiling. It would be cost-prohibitive to install a special smoking area as provided under the proposed ordinance, he said.

The proposed law also could hurt the city's ability to attract visitors, particularly conventioneers from foreign nations where smoking is more socially accepted, Workman said.

Smoking ordinances such as the current one in San Antonio that require separate sections, but allow smokers and non-smokers to share air space, do little to control unwanted secondhand smoke, which studies have linked to up to 3,000 U.S. deaths annually from lung cancer, Yanez said.

``It's like trying to swim in a non-chlorinated section of a pool,'' she said. ``We like local (anti-smoking laws). This is where the best enforcement comes from, partly because the tobacco industry doesn't usually give campaign contributions to local politicians.''

Nearly 200 cities, including Wichita Falls, Carrollton, Plano and West Lake Hills in Texas, prohibit smoking in restaurants, Yanez said.

``In the cities in California where smoke-free workplace regulations have taken effect, there's been a real change in the culture,'' she said. ``Kids see less role-modeling of smoking as socially acceptable.''

Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds and nationally known opponent of the tobacco industry, said he supports the proposed San Antonio ordinance, which he said is in line with anti-smoking laws being adopted by a growing number of U.S. cities.

``If the city wanted to do the restaurants a favor, it would ban smoking altogether,'' said Reynolds, who turned against the tobacco industry after his father and brother died of emphysema and cancer.

Fast Forward

THE WEB FOR THE REST OF US
You're not very interested in computers, though you know how to use them. You don't work in the PC, media or communications industries. You don't really like video games. You have not been tattooed, pierced or abducted by aliens. Is there anything at all on the World Wide Web for someone like you?

7,437 words
30 May 1997
The Washington Post
FINAL
N34

, The Washington Post Co

Unlike just about every other list of World Wide Web sites being published these days, the gathering that follows is conspicuously lacking The Hottest This and The Coolest That. In fact, we're proud to say that most of the sites we've chosen are, well, lukewarm: sturdy electronic information resources that deliver admirably useful material on topics that are of some potential use. These sites are probably not going to win much attention from the propeller-heads and the digerati, but that's just the point. This is a selection of sites that a typical civilian home computer owner of recent vintage just might find worth the time, trouble and expense of logging onto.

A few caveats: The list is arbitrary and maddeningly incomplete. We list Web sites devoted to some topics of very broad interest (family, cars, money, TV) and some that appeal to much smaller slivers of the populations (pregnancy, indoor herb gardening, wine). We've asked each contributor to plumb the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of sites devoted to their assigned topics and distill them to two or three or four that offer the greatest potential utility to a civilian computist. In most categories, we also asked for one good "meta-site," a Web page that consists mostly of links to related sites. We've purposely ignored pages devoted to computing itself, and to the online reportage of what's long been referred to as "news." As a result, we've left out some of the Web's most popular and well-regarded sites and elevated some curious obscurities. So be it. What you have here are a few hand-holds and toe-holds on the blind, slippery and ever-exploding mountain of information known as the Internet. Use it wisely. But most of all, use it.

…

Quitting Smoking

QuitNet

http://www.quitnet.org

Unlike quitter sites that provide boilerplate tips and advice, this one offers three interactive questionnaires that analyze your smoking habits and offer personalized recommendations. It also offers the expected library, links and news. Forums let quitters share experiences, with help from Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program counselors.

Foundation for a Smoke-Free America

http://tobaccofree.com

Much of the upfront info at this Web site -- run by a nonprofit group founded by Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds and a former smoker himself -- is in-your-face activism. Go to the "Quitting Tips" link for Reynolds's insightful soliloquy on how he quit -- and how others might follow.

Meta-site: tobacco-related resources

Los Angeles Times Magazine; Times Magazine Desk

Ashes to Ashes
Suppose America Just Said No to Tobacco -- What Then? Here's a Hypothetical Look at the Probable Impact on Everyone and Everything From Smokers and Farmers to Tax Coffers and the Tobacco Companies Themselves.

Janet Wiscombe
Janet Wiscombe, a Long Beach-based writer and former smoker, is a frequent contributor to The Times
4,224 words
10 August 1997
Los Angeles Times
Home Edition
8

**** Start of Correction **** August 17, 1997 Home Edition Page 8 Section: Los Angeles Times Magazine; Times Magazine Desk

FOR THE RECORD

Because of an editing error, David Kessler was misidentified as a former U.S. surgeon general in "Ashes to Ashes" (Aug. 10). He is a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner. **** End of Correction ****

Linda Nuckolls, a likable middle-aged woman who looks her age, unapologetically lights a generic cigarette. From her perch on a bar stool at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, she contemplates the awful scenario: a nation without tobacco.

The smile fades. A look of horror pierces the smoky blue cloud. "Ugly," she surmises. "It would be real ugly. It would be war between the smokers and the 'You're Bad and I'm Good' people. There would be a huge underworld. There would be fighting in the streets."

The most massive legal settlement in the nation's history has concluded, for now. Big Tobacco has been punished, though some say not enough. As Congress debates the $368.5-billion payout and physicians and attorneys general inhale the prestige, edgy tobaccophiles ponder their fate and slink back to their endangered hiding places for a smoke.

But wait. What if there weren't any tobacco at all? Poof. Gone. Finis. What would a world without tobacco look like?

About 400 miles up the coast, in San Francisco, Stanton Glantz is not smoking. He dwells in the smoke-free chambers of California politics and health. He is one of the nation's most outspoken anti-smoking crusaders and the state's recently appointed tobacco czar. It's his job to advise the Department of Health Services how to spend its $100 million annual budget for anti-tobacco ads, education and research.

"Smoking will eventually become a private, socially unsanctioned behavior, involving only a few sleazy people," he declares.

Others, even those who have been allies in the raging tobacco wars, visualize very different consequences.

Walker Merryman, tobacco lobbyist: "A million jobs and billions of dollars would be lost."

Kenneth Warner, medical economist: "We can live handsomely without tobacco."

Lester Breslow, public-health professor: "There would be a considerable, measurable increase in longevity."

Peter Berger, sociologist: "The anti-smoking thing is a Protestant business."

William McCarthy, psychologist: "People would eat more fruit."

Mark Twain, writer: "If I cannot smoke in heaven, then I shall not go."

To visualize a nation in which tobacco is banned, a concept no one is seriously advancing--including former U.S. Surgeon Generals David Kessler and C. Everett Koop--one must begin in the rural South, where tobacco is the gilded leaf, nature's most prodigious gift.

North Carolina produces 52% of all domestically grown tobacco. Keith Beavers raises cattle and corn, soybeans and sweet potatoes on his 1,000-acre spread in Mount Olive. But tobacco is the cash cow, the crop that delivers the farm's most stable profits. Here in Duplin County, the ubiquitous weed has built the libraries, the parks, the operas, the museums, the schools, the churches. For five generations, members of the Beavers family have planted and harvested tobacco.

"Tobacco is my lifeblood," Beavers says. "Always has been. Always will be." If tobacco were suddenly outlawed, he predicts many farmers in the South would be wiped out. But not him. "It would be a matter of making a few adjustments," he says. "I'd just grow it for export."

In California, where about 18% of the adult population smokes, it's easy to visualize a tobacco-free society (in Davis, you can be arrested for smoking in outdoor restaurants). But in the Southeast, hundreds of communities haven't gotten around to banning smoking in elevators. No surprise, then, that Beavers finds the concept of a nation without tobacco preposterous and unfathomable.

But the elder of his two daughters, Jeanette Creech, does not. She broke with tradition and left the family tobacco fields for a smoke-free office. Now 30, she works for the North Carolina Farm Credit Assn., which provides financing to farmers. Creech senses that the region's thrall with tobacco may be at an end. "I'd say something serious is going to happen by the time I'm 50," she says. "I don't know if it's going to happen in five years or 20 years, but I definitely see change."

Adds Larry Wooten, a spokesman for the North Carolina Farm Bureau, "A country without tobacco is not a pretty thought. It's the lawyers who would gain. It's the farmers and retail merchants who would be devastated."

As politicians and lawyers ponder payoffs of multibillion-dollar settlements, Don Richardson is talking to tobacco farmers about diversifying into crops like cabbage and tomatoes. The director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Tennessee, Richardson works with agronomists and food scientists to help farmers make a better living. Small tobacco farmers, many of whom have already been gobbled up by larger growers, are learning new ways of growing vegetables and fruits, new methods of pest control and new harvest technology. There are plenty of ways for farmers to make a living besides growing tobacco, Richardson insists. "It's already happening."

Despite incendiary political wars and conclusive evidence that smoking kills, the tobacco business still generates astonishing profits. Philip Morris, maker of about half of all cigarettes sold in the United States, earned $6.3 billion in profits last year, the third most profitable business in the country after Exxon and General Electric. (The figure includes non-tobacco Philip Morris products such as Miracle Whip, Velveeta cheese, Kool-Aid and Miller beer.) PM's tobacco division last year took in $12.5 billion in the United States; if its sales were broken out, the Marlboro brand alone would rank as about the 100th-biggest corporation in the country.

In the United States, about 25% of the adult population smokes, nearly half as many as in the 1950s. That's still 50 million people, more than voted for President Clinton in the last election. And the number of smokers is increasing dramatically in developing countries in South America, Asia and Eastern Europe. While China is the largest tobacco grower, producing 40% of the world's supply, the top three multinational companies--Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and British American Tobacco--account for a full third of the 5.5 trillion cigarettes sold annually worldwide. Regardless of what happens in Washington, the universal desire for the prized American leaf persists from the cafes of Copenhagen to the temples of Angkor Wat.

Nevertheless, the Tobacco Institute, the industry's key lobbyist, estimates that California would lose 17,000 jobs directly, 12,000 indirectly, if tobacco were banned; nationally there would be 662,000 fewer jobs and $15 billion less in paychecks. Kenneth Warner, an economist at the University of Michigan who is considered the country's most astute public health researcher, has devoted a considerable chunk of his career to analyzing how the absence of tobacco would affect the nation's economy. His conclusion: "I'd bet my bottom dollar that if tobacco consumption declines, it will actually increase employment in at least 40 of the 50 states." If spending was reallocated from tobacco purchases to other items, most states would gain jobs because tobacco dollars would remain within the local state economy.

The economic-hardship issue is genuine for some states in the South, Warner says, but has been grotesquely exaggerated by the tobacco industry. The industry, he argues, has been largely responsible for the drop in employment in tobacco-related fields because of mechanization and the buying of tobacco overseas. "Health, not money, motivates the call for a tobacco-free society," Warner says, adding that cigarette smoking causes more premature deaths than those from AIDS, cocaine, heroin and alcohol abuse, fire, automobile accidents, homicide and suicide combined.

Ultimately, the economic repercussions of a tobacco-free society are neither as dire as the tobacco industry implies nor as "profitable" as some members of the anti-tobacco community believe. If there were a ban, lost jobs would be made up elsewhere in the economy. "The tobacco industry implies that if there were a prohibition, tobacco money would disappear," Warner says. "What everyone fails to mention is that the money would be spent on other things."

It's the kind of conclusion that angers and confuses those dependent on tobacco money. The tobacco-withdrawal industry--those who make nicotine patches and gum, for example--would eventually be sunk. Other possible losers would be magazines like Rolling Stone and Details, which rely heavily on cigarette ads for income, and retail stores that sell tobacco products. Without cigarettes, chewing tobacco, cigars and pipe tobacco, the neighborhood 7-Eleven would be a markedly different place. To say that convenience stores aren't dependent on tobacco is like saying smoking doesn't tar the teeth or blacken the lungs. For sheer volume of tobacco sales, the mini-mart is king. Cigarettes account for one-quarter of merchandise sales at the nation's 95,000 convenience stores, the National Assn. of Convenience Stores estimates. But last year, for the first time, income from cigarette sales in convenience stores declined, partly because small, low-cost tobacco shops like Cigarettes Cheaper! are growing like, well, weeds. Since its first store opened in California in October 1994, the chain has sprouted into a $250-million-a-year bonanza, with 393 branches in eight states.

Convenience stores are by no means frozen in their tracks waiting for the hatchet to fall. Millions of Americans may have quit smoking, but their addiction to fast food appears insatiable. "Americans shop for lunch and dinner," points out Lindsay Hutter of the convenience store association. "They don't shop for food anymore. We are not walking away from the tobacco customer. But we have to reach out to new consumer bases."

The beautiful blond in the long, vampy black satin dress puffs on a cigarette and inhales with slow, rapturous sensuality. A dapper gentleman, brandy snifter in one hand, cigar in the other, holds court at an oak-paneled bar, reeking confidence and charm.

The scenes are increasingly common. Entire Web sites, magazines, newsletters and videos devoted to the pleasures and erotic delights of smoking are flourishing. As the mainstream smokes less, smoking is entering a nether realm of cultural seduction.

Social scientists couldn't be less surprised. Withhold tobacco and people would lust for cigarettes like never before. Smokeasies would thrive.

"The more tobacco is a taboo, the more it is eroticized," says Richard Klein, a professor of Romance studies at Cornell University and author of "Cigarettes Are Sublime." He argues that the more you interdict cigarettes, the more people will enjoy the danger of transgressing--particularly young people (smoking has increased among high school students for the past five years). Before it is possible to visualize a smoke-free society or even help smokers quit, Klein says, we should pay attention to why people smoke in the first place. For all their lethal properties, cigarettes also mitigate anxiety, cut appetite, promote camaraderie and provide consolation. "The most precious quality is the beauty they bring," says Klein, who wrote his ode to cigarettes as a way of quitting, which he did. "Fire, cinder and smoke have always struck people as powerfully beautiful."

Adds Peter Berger, a sociologist at Boston University: "In France there was an attempt to regulate smoking and the French people said, 'Go to hell.' France is an individualist culture. We think we are, but we aren't. This is a conformist culture. The anti-smoking thing is related to the American puritan anti-pleasure ethos."

For many, particularly health advocates, it's enough to say that without tobacco everyone would be happier and healthier. End of story. But humans are complex creatures, and smoking is a complex social behavior. In his book, Klein raises the question: If tobacco were banished, would anything be lost? Smoking is a pleasure that is democratic, popular and universal, he says. "There is nowhere in the world where people do not smoke if they are allowed to." A nation without tobacco might indeed become a more repressed, intolerant and regimented place, Klein says. No society has succeeded in getting along without smoking tobacco, he adds, which suggests that the practice will outlive the current wave of intolerance. "Without tobacco, people will seek substitutes. Maybe we'll get back to hemp."

Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Assn. of America, a tobacco industry trade group, says smoking is one of the great pleasures of living. A cigar after a fine meal creates a bond, a fellowship between men and women. Without tobacco, people would be more uptight--and selfish. The popularity of cigars is, in part, an antidote to the culture's competitiveness and aggression, its obsession with youth and health, with living right, eating right, exercising right, he says. "In this country, the first crime is getting old. The second is to die. The anti-tobacco people are puritans searching for the fountain of youth."

From his crystalline, tobacco-free office at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Santa Monica, health psychologist William McCarthy is surrounded by an exclusive world of fitness, where people shell out $7,000 for a two-week health camp. Apart from citing the obvious physical benefits, McCarthy can come up with plenty of examples of how society would benefit without tobacco. Among them: cleaner walls and ceilings, fewer holes in clothes, fewer fires, lower insurance rates, less smoker guilt, "a better olfactory environment."

"People who smoke smell," he says flatly.

McCarthy is a health nut who will probably live to be 120. He predicts the day will come when the government will play a larger role in public health, urging better diets and more exercise, and "the huge societal importance of understanding the dangers of too much salt and fat." He knows there are those who fear governmental regulations on tobacco could be just the beginning. Next could come a crackdown on caffeine, alcohol, even potato chips. "There's some truth to the fear," he says. It's the kind of statement that makes tobacco lobbyist Walker Merryman go ballistic. "These are the people I call society's shower adjusters. If you didn't lock your bathroom door, they would be in there setting the temperature of your bath water because they know what's best for you. The connotations are frightening."

Entire careers in medicine and health care are devoted to the impact of tobacco--from the instructor who teaches the smoke-cessation class to the doctor who treats emphysema, the bureaucrat who doles out grants to the researcher who studies the relationship between teenagers and Joe Camel.

An estimated 420,000 American smokers die prematurely every year from smoking. The World Health Organization reports the global figure is 3 million. Dorothy Rice, an economist at UC San Francisco and a pioneer in the study of the economic impact of smoking, says the direct cost of smoking in California--for physician services, medications, hospital and nursing home expenditures--is $3.6 billion a year. Add the indirect costs, largely from lost productivity in the workplace due to smoking-related illnesses, and the total is $10 billion. Nationally, Rice says, smokers cost the country $50 billion a year in direct costs.

Yet others argue that smokers are an economic boon. Since they die prematurely, they aren't around long enough to collect retirement benefits or linger in nursing homes. Stanford University tobacco researcher John Shoven, now dean of humanities and sciences, estimates that male smokers lose about $40,000 and female smokers $20,000 in future Social Security benefits, and he disputes research that claims smokers are such an enormous drain on the economy. If people were healthier and lived longer, major adjustments would have to be made to Social Security, he says. "People would simply have to work longer."

Ruth Roemer, a UCLA professor who specializes in laws relating to public health, studies the impact of smoking on health worldwide. In a report she conducted for the World Health Organization on international substance abuse and tobacco control legislation, Roemer argues for an international treaty to control tobacco--"the largest single cause of preventable, premature death and disease." By the year 2025, she says, 10 million people will die each year from smoking--particularly in developing countries where tobacco companies are concentrating their attention. "A fierce tobacco epidemic is taking place all over the world," Roemer says. "The problem is staggering."

If poor countries were freed from addressing smoking-related illnesses, she adds, they could address other urgent personal and environmental health issues ranging from childhood disease to sanitation and pollution. Further, if families were not spending money on tobacco, they would have more money for food.

Lester Breslow, a professor and dean emeritus at the UCLA School of Public Health and leading anti-smoking advocate, predicts that without tobacco there would be a shift in the kinds of diseases doctors treat and a subsequent shift in the medical specialties doctors pursue. If people live longer and healthier lives, Breslow says, there'd probably be more need, say, for gerontologists. The medical establishment would have far fewer patients. More attention could be paid to maintaining health throughout a person's life, into and through old age.

"It would bring the population closer to whatever the human life span really is," says the 82-year-old physician. "A mouse lives about two years. An elephant, 80. If there's no accident or disease, the human life span is probably between 85 and 100."

Dr. Michael Steinberg, an oncologist at the Santa Monica Cancer Treatment Center, isn't planning any career moves. "Cancer is a disease of aging, as well as carcinogens," he says. In the past 40 years, he points out, the availability of pap smears has significantly decreased the number of advanced cervical cancer cases. On the other hand, more women are now being treated for breast cancer because they are living longer with the disease. What is certain, Steinberg says, is that in a tobacco-free society there would be much less illness and much better health. It wouldn't happen overnight. When smokers quit, health risks associated with smoking gradually decline. After seven years, the risks drop dramatically but don't completely disappear until many years later.

Smokers often say half-jokingly that without tobacco, they might be healthier physically but basket cases emotionally. Enoch Ludlow, spokesman for FORCES (Fight Ordinances and Restrictions to Control and Eliminate Smoking), says Americans already are stressed to the max. "People don't hang out and talk anymore. They drive like maniacs," Ludlow says. "Without tobacco, things would be worse than they already are. The decline in civility is directly related to the decline in smoking."

Indeed, the medicinal value of nicotine has been well known to physicians and religious leaders for centuries, says Murray Jarvik, a psychiatrist at the UCLA School of Medicine and inventor of the nicotine patch. Nicotine, he says, is probably used as a way of self-medicating. He cites a University of Colorado School of Medicine study that found that people with mental illnesses were much more likely to smoke than the general population, and that from 70% to 90% of schizophrenics smoke. Without tobacco, Jarvik predicts, mentally ill and depressed people might worsen and seek something else to modulate their mood: "Maybe there would be more antidepressant drug use."

Adds the Pritikin center's William McCarthy, "Without tobacco, suicide rates would go up."

Jarvik notes that one of the main virtues of nicotine is that it makes people feel good, a fact nonsmokers and members of the public-health community tend to discount. The notion that a drug might be used for pleasure is anathema to many in our society, Jarvik says. "If an average person finds a drug that will make him happier, brighter, thinner and richer, it would be hard to resist even if his doctor would not prescribe it," he says. "Nicotine might be just such a drug."

There is no sector of society more hooked on tobacco than the government. Tobacco is America's most profitable cash crop, one of its most popular exports, a source of huge tax revenues and the American politician's most generous benefactor.

At the state level, tax revenues on tobacco are manna from heaven. Americans pay an average 34 cents in state tax every time they buy a pack of cigarettes, the product that constitutes 93% of tobacco sales. Washington state imposes the highest tax--82.5 cents a pack--Virginia the least at 2.5 cents a pack, but it allows cities and towns to levy their own taxes. Californians pay 37 cents a pack. When levies on other tobacco products such as cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco and snuff are added, smokers have contributed $646 million so far this year to California's coffers. (Taxes on alcohol reaped $264 million.) Without tobacco tax revenues, the state would have a lot less money to spend on state services ranging from housing prisoners to educating children, says Sean Walsh, Gov. Pete Wilson's spokesman.

Walsh is reluctant to speculate how California, which grows no tobacco, would fare economically without it. "The question is complex, to put it mildly," he says. Susanne Hildebrand-Zanki is less equivocal. "California would be vastly better off," she maintains. "The net benefits would far outweigh what we'd give up in taxes." Hildebrand-Zanki is head of the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program at the University of California system, which decides which researchers at private and public California institutions get funding to study the health and economic tolls of tobacco. The state's budget for tobacco research programs has fluctuated wildly since Gov. Pete Wilson began diverting tobacco tax money to other state programs. Hildebrand-Zanki's budget, for example, has plummeted from $25 million to $4 million. In any event, she says, "from the very beginning, we realized that if the program was successful, we would be out of a job."

Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco tycoon R.J. Reynolds, broke rank with his family and testified in 1986 against the tobacco industry before a congressional committee. He now devotes most of his energies to his Beverly Hills-based Foundation for a Smokefree America. Political reform would be much more likely, Reynolds says, without the "shameful, filthy alliance Big Tobacco has with politicians." Though he doesn't advocate a tobacco ban, he believes a lot of smokers might actually like to see cigarettes snuffed out; it would force them to quit. Referring to the toll of tobacco-related deaths worldwide, he says: "It's the greatest crime of the 20th century, by far."

In the United States, tobacco has created unfiltered chasms between people. Even if it were banished, no one close to the bruising debate suggests it would vanish. With cigarettes on the verge of becoming a regulated drug, they could eventually become so nontoxic and respectable they'd just disappear, or so hot they'd be smuggled in from as far as Brazil and Zimbabwe. Smoking would become all the more alluring, says the Tobacco Institute's Merryman, who compares the anti-smoking zealots of today with "the pursed-lipped moralists" from the turn of the last century, the architects of Prohibition. Then, as now, there was a free-floating social intolerance, a suspicion fostered by religious leaders that pleasure is immoral and the world a scary place. "If there wasn't any tobacco, there would be no end to the social engineering," Merryman says. "It would do great damage to the entire notion of what freedom means. Where do you draw the line?"

While President Clinton and Congress consider landmark tobacco legislation in the coming months, Denny Manning will be selling a full line of tobacco products at Cigarettes Cheaper! in Long Beach, a job that pays $6 an hour.

Manning is 50. He says smoking is the only vice he's got left. He's a loquacious fellow who makes the customers stopping by the smoke-friendly island feel a little less dysfunctional. A big, ugly ashtray beside the cash register overflows with butts; a 6'5" Marlboro Man lights a cigarette from a display sign near the doorway.

Manning doesn't pay much attention to national tobacco talk. He doesn't know whom to believe anymore. He does wish people on both sides of the tobacco war would lighten, if not light, up. From his spot behind the counter, he takes a long drag from a Marlboro and greets a regular customer as if he were a brother from the trenches. Then he issues this warning from behind a haze of smoke: "Drive careful, young man. There's maniacs out there."

Tobacco Quotes

By The Associated Press
473 words
17 September 1997
04:44 pm
Associated Press Newswires

Quotes concerning President Clinton's announcement on the tobacco deal.

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"During the last 90 days, since we've been waiting for action from the White House, 267,000 kids have started smoking in this country, and 90,000 of those kids are going to die very painful, very horrible death from it. ... There's an urgency here. And I don't think Congress ought to go home this year, and I don't think we ought to give up our efforts this year to get something done." - Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore, lead negotiator of the original tobacco deal.

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"The tobacco bailout deal is dead. Now we have a chance to get it right and force this rogue industry to stop marketing to kids, expose their secrets and lies, and ensure a strong national health policy on tobacco." - Minnesota Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III, who is scheduled to go to trial against tobacco companies early next year.

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"It's late and it's paltry." - Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, of Clinton's announcement.

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"His failure to (be more specific) eliminated what little chance we had of getting an agreement enacted this year, and makes it far more difficult for us to do so at all." - Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Va., chairman of the House Commerce Committee.

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"I don't feel compelled that we have to pass this in two months. I don't feel compelled that we have to pass this in 12 months." - Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the GOP point man on tobacco in the Senate.

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"The American Lung Association thanks President Clinton for taking a big step forward to protect children by not endorsing a global tobacco settlement that proved woefully inadequate in addressing the nation's tobacco-related health problems." - John Garrison, chief executive officer, American Lung Association.

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"President Clinton is making it clear that when it comes to protecting our children from addiction and from disease, we cannot settle for half a loaf." - Vice President Al Gore.

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"If we take responsibility, if we pass this legislation, if we do what we should here, if the tobacco industry will work with us, if other members of Congress in both parties will work with us, we will have gone a very long way toward creating the state of health for our children that will make America an even greater nation in the new century." - President Clinton.

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"That's great. That's terrific. That shows a great deal of courage. He's right. Congress doesn't need to negotiate with the tobacco industry in order to pass these regulations. Congress doesn't need the tobacco industry's permission to regulate it." - Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco company founder R.J. Reynolds. Patrick Reynolds created the Foundation for a Smokefree America in 1989.

Tobacco Quotes

By The Associated Press
384 words
17 September 1997
01:35 pm
Associated Press Newswires

Quotes concerning President Clinton's announcement on the tobacco deal

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"It's late and it's paltry." - Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, of Clinton's announcement.

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"President Clinton is making it clear that when it comes to protecting our children from addiction and from disease, we cannot settle for half a loaf." - Vice President Al Gore.

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Quotes concerning President Clinton's announcement on the tobacco deal

475 words
17 September 1997
The Associated Press

(. .)

Quotes concerning President Clinton's announcement on the tobacco deal.

- - -

"It's late and it's paltry." - Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, of Clinton's announcement.

- - -

"President Clinton is making it clear that when it comes to protecting our children from addiction and from disease, we cannot settle for half a loaf." - Vice President Al Gore.

- - -

"That's great. That's terrific. That shows a great deal of courage. He's right. Congress doesn't need to negotiate with the tobacco industry in order to pass these regulations. Congress doesn't need the tobacco industry's permission to regulate it." - Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco company founder R.J. Reynolds. Patrick Reynolds created the Foundation for a Smokefree America in 1989.

Denver & The West

METRO NEWS

878 words
17 September 1997
Denver Post
Final
B-02

Tobacco heir to speak

Patrick Reynolds, grandson of the founder of the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company, is scheduled to speak in Denver on the "Battle for a Smoke Free America" on Monday at the Tivoli Turnhalle on the Auraria campus downtown.

Reynolds has been pushing nationwide for a smoke-free society since 1986. He has testified in Congress in favor of banning all cigarette advertising and lobbied for restriction of smoking on domestic airplane flights.

His father, oldest brother and other relatives reportedly died from cigarette-induced emphysema and lung cancer, and Reynolds has been campaigning ever since. LAKEWOOD Sting nets 11 men

Tobacco Quotes

By The Associated Press
459 words
18 September 1997
02:16 am
Associated Press Newswires

Quotes concerning President Clinton's announcement on the tobacco deal

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"Today will go down in history as the day President Bill Clinton made the Marlboro Man blink and the health of the nation's children prevailed over the profits of the tobacco industry. The proposed tobacco settlement was grossly inadequate to protect children and reach other vital public health goals." - Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

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"It's late and it's paltry." - Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, of Clinton's announcement.

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"This isn't about what's best for Big Tobacco - it's what's best for young kids. It's about protecting young people from getting hooked and trapped and killed by tobacco. So we don't need to rush into this. Let's wait for the smoke to clear, take the time and do this right." - Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

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"I think the American people are expecting the Congress to deliver on this. We are not going to sit by and let the hemorrhaging of the taxpayers' money continue." - Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

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"This is not just about money. It's about reducing addiction and illness in the American people. Today, whether the tobacco companies know it or not, the obituary for their proposal is practically written." - Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.

Rush

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NEWS
EVENING. People. QUOTES OF THE DAY.

EVENING. People. QUOTES OF THE DAY.

578 words
18 September 1997
Chicago Tribune
EVENING UPDATE; C
2

`This is a setback for those of us who want to deter crime. And it's another reason for someone to say "Oh forget it, don't call a cop." ' -- Teresa Fraga, president of the Pilsen Neighbors community group, on the memo a Monroe District police commander wrote stereotyping Latinos.

ST. LOUIS SLUGGER MARK McGWIRE, WHO HAS HIT 53 HOME RUNS THIS SEASON, SAYING HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE FUSS OVER HIS FEAT: `So how much more can you talk about hitting a home run?'

`We had our 15 seconds of fame.'

-- John Crocco, a football player for Alden-Hebron High School, on the school's having to forfeit the rest of its season because of injuries of three players. In order to have enough players to field a team earlier in the season, two girls played, drawing national attention.

`Some kid, somewhere, somehow is going to (eat the lollipop). But do we deny this benefit to cancer patients for that reason?'

-- Nurse Suzanna Brown, on the raspberry-flavored lollipop loaded with narcotic pain-killer for treatment of cancer patients that was recommended for FDA approval Wednesday.

`I could have put it on the night stand and just sniffed it.'

-- Jennifer Schmermund, who says she was taking just small amounts of fertility drugs when she became pregnant. She gave birth to fraternal quadruplets Wednesday in New Orleans.

`I'm sorry to see that buildings cannot be named for people who have given a lifetime of service to the university. . . . Now it has to go to people with money.'

-- David Dyche, grandson of William Dyche, on the renaming of Northwestern's Dyche Stadium to Ryan Field after Patrick Ryan gave millions for renovations.

`I'll still pay. It's worth it.'

-- Jeff Adams, a 17-year-old Chicago-area student, who says higher cigarette prices won't prevent him from smoking.

`That's great. That's terrific. That shows a great deal of courage. He's right. Congress doesn't need to negotiate with the tobacco industry in order to pass these regulations. Congress doesn't need the tobacco industry's permission to regulate it.'

-- Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco company founder R.J. Reynolds, on President Clinton's move Thursday to reject the tobacco settlement as written. Patrick Reynolds created the Foundation for a Smokefree America in 1989.

PHOTOS 4; Caption: PHOTO: `I sold women's shoes. These women with size 10 feet would come in and insist they were 8 narrows. And you can't argue with a woman about her feet.' --Actor George Clooney, telling Entertainment Weekly what his hardest job was before he became famous. PHOTO: `Patience has limits.' Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, asked whether he expected riots as a result of the compromise reached between the Israeli government and Israeli settlers in the Ras al-Amoud neighborhood of 11,000 Palestinians in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want to be the capital of an independent state. Above, police drag away left-wing Israeli demonstrators from a rooftop near the settler compound. AP photo. PHOTOS: "When I read certain passages from the book, it can still, after all this time, bring up this devotion in me. Michele and I had wanted to do something together, and this was like a gift. . . .' -- Jessica Lange (left), on working with Michelle Pfeiffer (right) on the film version of the novel "A Thousand Acres," which opens Friday.

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Smoked out

711 words
22 September 1997
Bangor Daily News Bangor, ME
ALL

The deal state attorneys general crafted with Big Tobacco this summer was a good start, but the plan President Clinton unveiled last week is better. Better because it's tougher.

The $368 billion settlement the attorneys general worked out had from the start a slightly suspect aroma -- its primary focus was on ending lawsuits rather than reducing teen smoking, the tobacco industry got to keep too many of its secrets, it hampered the Food and Drug Administration's ability to regulate nicotine, it prohibited courts from awarding punitive damages and from punishing past misconduct, the payments were spread out over such a long time, 25 years, that the only real impact would have been slightly higher cigarette prices.

Then there's the $50 billion break the industry and its friends in Congress weaseled into the recent tax bill, proof enough that good faith was not part of the bargaining process. Why Big Tobacco settled so quickly became increasingly apparent as the deal was scrutinized.

The president's proposal packs a lot more punch. Penalties for missing goals of reducing teen smoking are stiffer. The industry's veil of secrecy is somewhat lifted and its liability shield lowered. The FDA will face no special hurdles. And the $50 billion giveaway goes in the dumper.

There's one more component that many may find distasteful but that is necessary -- provisions to help tobacco farmers break their own nasty habit.

It would be too easy to tell the nation's 124,000 growers to pound sand, to say they are the problem and putting them out of business is the solution.

But it's not that simple. About two-thirds of the nation's tobacco is grown in North Carolina and Kentucky by small farmers just getting by. A problem that took centuries to develop should not be solved by devastating hundreds of rural communities overnight. Tobacco is a high-yield, relatively failure-proof product but a switch to soybeans or another worthwhile crop may be feasible if the farmers get the assistance they need.

Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore, lead negotiator of the original deal, likes where the president is heading, but is skeptical about Congress's willingness to get there anytime soon, given its long history of playing footsie with Big Tobacco.

Moore's skepticism is justified. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, whose fingerprints were all over the $50 billion tax break, called Clinton's proposal "late and paltry." Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, the GOP's true blue Marlboro man, says there's no rush to consider the plan. Despite the fact that more than 250,000 kids started smoking since the original deal was struck three months ago, Nickles says there's nothing urgent here. Too little, too late or too much, too soon. Take your pick.

As leading Republican senators went into their stonewalling mode, their counterparts in the House surely discussed the ramifications of the president's plan on their way to a fund-raiser in New York City Wednesday night. And just how did Messrs. Gingrich, Armey, DeLay, et al. get to the Big Apple, you ask? On corporate jets provided by U.S. Tobacco Co. The only way to fly.

Despite its tendancy toward business as usual, there are signs Congress is inclined get tough on tobacco. Inone of its first acts after August recess, the Senate overwhelmingly backed an amendment, co-sponsored by Maine's Sen. Susdan Collins, that excised the $50 billion shenanigan from the tax bill. Last week, at the president's urging, the House affirmed its support by voice vote for the same amendment.

The best part of the president's plan, though, is that it puts Big Tobacco in its place -- not as an equal partner in negotiations but as an industry with a substantial impact upon public health that should be controlled as are other such industries and that should pay for that impact.

At least that's what Patrick Reynolds says: "Congress doesn't need to negotiate with the tobacco industry in order to pass these regulations. Congress doesn't need the tobacco industry's permission to regulate it." Reynolds, head of the Foundation for a Smokefree America, by the way, is the grandson of R.J. Reynolds.

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Denver & The West

U.S. will end cigarette use, students told Reynolds Co. heir explains how tobacco firms sway Congress

Ann Schrader Denver Post Medical Writer
361 words
23 September 1997
Denver Post
Rockies
B-03

The grandson of the man who founded the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company said Monday that America is moving toward snuffing out public use and acceptance of cigarettes.

"There is a light at the end of the tunnel," Patrick Reynolds told students on the Auraria campus. "In the 21st century, we are going to have a smoke-free society. It's coming."

Reynolds, who saw his father, oldest brother and other relatives die of cigarette-related diseases, founded the Foundation for a Smoke Free America, a nonprofit, charitable organization.

As a speaker and an anti-tobacco advocate, Reynolds lobbied for a 25-cent per-pack cigarette tax increase in California in 1988 and a new law banning cigarette sales to people under 21.

His lecture was part of the "Towering Issues of Today" series and was sponsored by several Auraria campus groups.

The Reynolds family hasn't worked in the tobacco business actively for about 50 years, Reynolds said.

But he frequently gets questioned about what his family thinks of his advocacy.

"Some of them don't like it much," he said.

Reynolds noted that the tobacco industry holds great sway with Congress, contributing $16 million in the last budget cycle and $2.5 million so far this year to senators and representatives.

"Eighty to 90 percent goes to Republicans," Reynolds said. "They have an alliance with the Republicans and nobody is talking about it ... I'm here to tell you, it's a partisan issue."

Reynolds criticized what he said was congressional foot-dragging on the enactment of limits to cigarette advertising, laws barring the purchase of cigarettes by minors and new taxes on tobacco products.

"The tobacco industry just sits back and waits for children to become addicted," Reynolds contended.

When the tobacco companies saw smoking drop in the United States, they began an aggressive ad campaign in the Third World, he said. Now, 9 percent of the world population smokes.

"The tobacco companies are deliberately killing 500 million people," Reynolds said.

dnvr000020011006dt9n00j5k

NORTHWEST LIVING

DAD, SON MAKE PEACE: BREATHE AND LET BREATHE

MARGIE BOULE - of The Oregonian staff
1,161 words
28 September 1997
Portland Oregonian
SUNRISE
L01

If life had gone according to plan, today B.J. Hall would be a tobacco farmer in Kentucky.

Instead, he was just installed as the president of the board of the American Lung Association of Oregon.

B.J.'s father, J.C. Hall, still grows tobacco in Kentucky. In fact, he's one of the top 10 producers in the state. It's J.C.'s farm that B.J. assumed he would one day run, when B.J. envisioned his future long ago.

Instead B.J. runs an organization whose business is to persuade people not to smoke.

But this is not the story of the kind of family feud that has torn apart the R.J. Reynolds family. Patrick Reynolds, grandson of the tobacco magnate, saw his father, brother and other relatives die of emphysema and lung cancer. So he founded The Foundation for a Smokefree America. He travels the world trying to persuade people not to buy tobacco products. He is not the favorite son.

It's different in B.J. Hall's family. Maybe it's because B.J.'s relatives understand why he's so worried about every breath people take. Maybe it's because they know about B.J.'s own struggle for breath. Maybe it's because B.J. wanted to be a tobacco farmer so long ago and, if he tries, he can still see the world in terms of pounds-produced-per-acre.

B.J. and his dad have made their peace. "We'll discuss politics, and we'll discuss religion," B.J. says. "But we won't discuss tobacco."

B.J. Hall was born in the house his family has lived in for six generations, near Louisville. "In the county deed book, No. 1, Volume 1, is the original transaction when we bought the farm," B.J. says.

B.J. says his father was a "progressive farmer. He moved from dairy farming to grass right after the war." There was a big demand for lawns in the '50s. "Then he moved to beef. From beef to hogs. And since then, he's been a tobacco farmer. He told me his decisions were based strictly on economics."

B.J. was the biggest, fastest, strongest kid in grade school. That, and his future as a farmer, all changed on April 9, 1954.

"Dad was dairy farming. My job was to take my dog, Rags, and herd the cattle into the barn. If cattle were heading in the wrong direction, I'd jump up and head them off. That day I couldn't jump up. I had to crawl to a fence post to pull myself up." His fever was 105 degrees. He had polio.

He awoke in the hospital, in an iron lung. "After I was an adult, my parents told me I hadn't been expected to live." But he did. After a long hospital stay, B.J. was fitted with leg braces and sent home. Right away his parents put him to work.

"One of my first memories is when my father lifted me over the fence and put me in the pigpen. He handed me an aluminum scoop. I had just regained some use of my arms. He told me to scoop the corncobs out of the pigpen. Every day I'd scoop a little more until finally it wasn't a big chore anymore." So his parents gave him new chores. "They would always find challenges that were a reach for me."

B.J. recovered well. He gives credit to God and to his parents. "They didn't believe there was a thing in the world I couldn't do." Except farm.

"When your father's the biggest and perceived to be the best farmer around, it's natural for the oldest son to want to follow in his father's footsteps." B.J. didn't want to go to college -- he wanted to stay home and help run the farm.

"But my parents saw my limitations as a result of having been completely paralyzed. They insisted I go to college. You did not argue with my father. So I majored in agriculture." He majored in accounting, too, and then became a CPA who specialized in health care. He wrote the first book about auditing hospital accounts. He became a hospital administrator in Ohio.

And then one day he discovered his 13-year-old daughter was smoking. "I brought her in to a cancer ward. Of course, it was easy to find people dying of lung cancer. I also got her information from the lung association so she could put the statistics together with her real-life experience."

B.J.'s effort failed; his daughter is grown and still smokes. "Every year it's her New Year's resolution: She's going to quit. She was in the Marine Corps. She's very disciplined." But she can't quit. B.J. thinks it's because tobacco companies have worked for decades to make cigarettes as addictive as possible.

"I don't find the growing of tobacco, a crop that's served this nation well -- it helped pay our debts for the Revolutionary War -- to be offensive. What I find offensive is the big tobacco companies that, through genetic breeding, have created a plant that is far more addictive than 100 years ago. And then they add horrible chemicals that increase the addictive functions and irritate the lungs.

"They've taken a product that helped rural farmers survive and turned it into a dangerous, life-threatening product."

B.J. Hall smoked one cigarette in his life. "Every good Southern boy has smoked at least once," he says. "I took a drag off a cigarette and coughed and gagged." He never smoked again, except for an annual cigar on his grandfather's birthday. He had to quit even that a few years ago when he was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome after moving to Oregon.

Now B.J. has only about 35 percent of normal lung capacity. The son of the tobacco farmer can empathize with the smokers who struggle for breath.

That's why he joined the board of the American Lung Association. He's working hard to persuade smokers -- especially his daughter -- to quit. But don't ask him to persuade his father to quit growing tobacco.

"Dad grows tobacco because it produces more income per acre than any other crop he could grow. I respect that economic decision. I participate with the lung association to discourage people from smoking because it is hazardous to their health. And Dad respects that decision.

"If he didn't produce tobacco, someone else would."

All B.J. has to do is persuade the world not to buy it.

Reach Margie Boule at 221-8450, 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, Ore. 97201, or Marboule@aol.com.

por0000020011008dt9s01rsh

Up in smoke: kicking butt

The wages of sin: the tobacco companies will now pay for smoking and anti-smoking ads.

(includes related article on anti-smoking legislation)

Eleftheria Parpis
2,678 words
13 October 1997
ADWEEK Eastern Edition
33
Vol. 38, No. 41, ISSN: 0199-2864

ADWEEK L.P.

Smoking may be stealing front-page headlines, but anti-smoking campaigns are as old as the first cigarette. Consider the colorful history of its detractors when smoke got in their eyes.

In the early 1600s, King James I of England denounced the vice, describing it as "a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."

Not to be outdone, a former school teacher named Lucy Page Gaston founded one of the earliest anti-smoking groups in tobacco history some 300 years later.

Of course, much like many of today's advocates, Gaston's crusade for a "clean life" was geared to the young. The earnest reformer launched the Chicago Anti-Cigarette League and later ran for president on an anti-smoking platform, even attacking her opponent, Warren Harding, as having a distrustful "cigarette face."

While her outrageous tactics ultimately compromised her views and led to her forced resignation from the group in 1919, Gaston's efforts marked the historic beginning of a century long public relations war between the tobacco industry and anti-tobacco groups.

Sound familiar? Long ago, Gaston warned boys that the free trading cards adorned with images of actors, actresses and sports stars that came with cigarettes were not worth the health risks. Today, anti-tobacco groups fight against savvy merchandising programs such as Marlboro Miles and Camel Cash.

While cigarette makers have used glamour, style and sex appeal to peddle their products, heath-advocacy groups such as the American Cancer Society have worked diligently to educate people about the hazards of smoking. It's been a Herculean effort. Last year, cigarette companies spent $675 million on advertising, according to Competitive Media Reporting. By contrast, anti-smoking campaigns, constricted by diminutive budgets and dependence on donated media time, have been drowned out by the walloping advertising budgets of tobacco companies. Until now.

As part of the nation's landmark $368.5 billion settlement reached by the tobacco industry (Brown & Williamson, R.J. Reynolds, Philip Morris and Lorillard) and 40 state attorneys general in June, cigarette manufacturers will settle lawsuits by awarding punitive damages, submit to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration and drastically alter their marketing programs in exchange for immunity from future class actions. In addition, they will have to spend $500 million yearly to combat their own ads by financing anti-tobacco advertising. President Clinton has proposed an additional $1.50 per pack price hike, as well.

If other states follow Florida's lead, the spending for anti-smoking messages in the next few years may surpass the ad budget of the tobacco industry. For instance, as part of a Florida settlement negotiated in late August, the tobacco companies agreed to pay the state $200 million to be used for an anti-smoking campaign that will include advertising, educational programs and stricter policing of tobacco sales to minors over a two-year period. The settlement was also extended to Mississippi.

In the past, most anti-smoking advertising was done pro bono and provided by the American Cancer Society or the American Lung Association. But in 1969, broadcasters were forced to donate equal time to tobacco-control groups. When legislation banned cigarette ads on TV and radio two years later, anti-smoking spots were relegated to off-peak hours. The time slot rendered even the most meaningful messages impotent.

That was then; this is now.

In recent years, viewers have seen a slow, steady rise in prime-time anti-smoking ads. The reason? Pro bono ads were transformed into paid media accounts funded by state cigarette tax revenues. A public health hazard proved to be a boon to the ad industry.

In 1989, California passed legislation to run paid-for anti-smoking ad campaigns funded by cigarette tax revenues. Massachusetts passed similar legislation in 1992, as did Arizona in 1994. Oregon followed suit this year.

Legislation follows on the heels of exhaustive activism. Much like their past counterparts, anti-smoking crusaders perceive their work as a fight to the finish. "We are in a war," insists Colleen Stevens, chief of California's tobacco control media campaign. "The media is the air cover and the other programs our ground troops."

The prospect of a national commitment in the battle against tobacco offers tremendous encouragement to health groups nationwide. "We are pleased [with recent developments]," adds Stevens. "The more players that are out there, the better. This is a national tragedy."

National health groups estimate there are approximately 45 million smokers in the United States and that some 3,000 teenagers pick up the habit every day.

"The tobacco industry spends $6 billion to make smoking part of the culture, to make people think it is normal," says Stevens. "There's nothing normal about it. One-third to one-half of the people who smoke die from smoking-related illnesses."

Since research has shown that most adult smokers pick up the habit in their teenage years, anti-smoking efforts have focused serious attention on reducing and preventing teen smoking. As part of the $368.5 billion settlement, tobacco companies will have to pay up to $2 billion a year in additional penalties if underage smoking doesn't fall by 30 percent in five years and 60 percent in 10 years.

Ironically, the talents of the advertising community, which helped the tobacco companies to expand its $10 billion industry for decadesf40, are now being sought by the government to undo its successes. Agencies that handle state-funded anti-smoking accounts--such as Asher/Gould in Los Angeles, Houston Herstek Favat in Boston and The Riester Corp. in Phoenix--are charged with the task of un-selling one of the most heavily marketed products of the 20th century.

"It is a very challenging account," admits Bruce Dundore, executive vice president and creative director of Asher/Gould. Since 1994, his agency has worked on the California Department of Health Services' (CDHS) tobacco-control account, which currently spends an estimated $22 million on media.

"It's tough to get people not to buy stuff, especially when it's a product equated with pleasure," Gould admits. Still, Asher/Gould hasn't been timid in its criticism of the tobacco industry. One of the agency's early spots for the CDHS featured footage of the heads of major tobacco companies testifying before Congress that they did not believe nicotine was addictive.

"Now the tobacco industry tells us secondhand smoke isn't dangerous. Do they think we're stupid?" asks the voiceover. Another controversial spot showed a man fishing, reeling in one after another. Close-ups show the fish lying on the deck, struggling to breathe. "The tobacco industry knows the more nicotine their cigarettes have, the more hooked you'll be," the ad notes. "But you know whet they say. There's plenty more fish in the sea. They profit; you lose. The tobacco industry."

Asher/Gould's most recent efforts have continued to strip tobacco companies of their innocence with a sharper emphasis on teens. The agency has been particularly successful in using the industry's advertising icons to hammer home its own anti-smoking messages.

In one spot, for example, the cowboys of Marlboro country are cast as tobacco marketers and their cattle is a herd of children. "This is how the guys who make cigarettes want you to see them, and this is how they see you," says the voiceover, while the ranchers steer the kids into a pen. "Once they get you where they want you, they've got you for life. If you knew what they thought," the spot warns, "you'd think twice."

So compelling are some anti-smoking spots that Boston's Houston Herstek Favat has built a creative reputation on its award-winning commercials for the $12 million Massachusetts Department of Health account.

Some of the agency's most powerful spots show the harsh medical realities of the effects of smoking. In one memorable ad, a man sings "Happy Birthday" to the tobacco industry through the shrill, electronic tones of his voice box. "Celebrating 121 years of fine tobacco products," says the spot. "It's time we made smoking history."

A powerful Houston Herstek campaign called "The Truth" features testimonials from ax-employees and former supporters of the tobacco industry. In one spot, former tobacco lobbyist Victor Crawford speaks out on the industry's recruitment of young smokers. "I was a lobbyist, and I know how tobacco companies work ... I lied, and I'm sorry," he says. The spot ends with a frame stating that Crawford later died from throat cancer. "It was sort of a deathbed confession," says Pete Favat, creative director and partner at the agency.

In a recent ad in the series, the brother of one of the Marlboro man models tells of his sibling's death from lung cancer Another Houston Herstek spot features a powerful endorsement for the anti-smoking movement. Patrick Reynolds, grandson of R.J. Reynolds, talks about the hidden chemicals found in cigarettes. "Why am I telling you this?" he asks. "I want my family to be on the right side for a change."

"We don't want the ads to be lofty messages from the government," says Favat. "We w,anted the messages to come from kids and people involved in the industries." Teen ads have focused on anti-social aspects of smoking, such as one graphic ad that shows how ugly a smoker can be on a date when he coughs up a lung.

In Arizona, The Riester Corp. has adopted the vernacular of teenagers to reach them in a $20 million campaign that calls smoking a "tumor-causing, teeth-staining, smelly, puking habit." The campaign, according to David Robb, vice president and creative director of The Riester Corp., attempts to take the "cool" out of cigarette smoking.

"They can listen to what the tobacco industry is telling them, but I am giving them another brand--not smoking," says Robb. "We are giving them the ammunition to say, `I'm OK if I don't smoke.'"

The ad campaign, which the Center for Disease Control recently distributed to 15 more states, is augmented with the "Ash-Kicker," a 43-foot traveling exhibition that gives children the unusual experience of walking through a model of a smoker's diseased body.

"It's a horror show. Kids love it," says Robb. The agency has also borrowed a popular marketing technique from cigarette companies--merchandising. It sells T-shirts, caps and other items branded with the ad slogan.

Despite their best efforts, there is little evidence to suggest that the anti-smoking campaigns have been overly effective, especially among teens. Stevens admits that, while cigarette consumption in California has dropped from 28 percent to 18 percent since the tobacco-control program began, the rate of smoking among teenagers has not declined. It has, however, stabilized in California, much as it has in Massachusetts.

Not surprisingly, the lackluster results have left some taxpayers skeptical of the power of the advertising. "Anti-smoking ads are a great way to win awards," says Boston-based freelance copywriter John Welsh. "It's like any other advertising. It's not a science. Some ads work; some don't. If you have a cousin who dies of lung cancer, that's more powerful than any commercial."

While cigarette companies have had ample opportunity to market the chic lifestyle of a smoker, anti-smoking advertising is still in its infancy. For those agencies armed with creativity, savvy research and, most importantly, tax dollars to support their campaigns, the anti-smoking battle has just begun.

"It's great to sell products, but with this account, maybe I can save a kid from smoking. We're known as such shills in this business," Favat muses. "Hopefully, we will look back on cigarette advertisements as something of the past. We need to strip down an American icon."

"God is on your side with an account like this," adds Robb. "You are dealing with a behavioral issue here." He sees his anti-smoking work in terms of David and Goliath. "We're the little guys against the big corporate giants. It's a challenge. Can it be done? Well, you want to be the one who does it. You want to go out and slay the dragon."

UP IN SMOKE: KICKING BUTT

2,098 words
13 October 1997
ADWEEK Southwest
33
ISSN: 0746-892X

ADWEEK L.P. Information Access Company.

The wages of sin: The tobacco companies will now pay for smoking and anti-smoking ads.

Eleftheria Parpis

Smoking may be stealing front-page headlines, but anti-smoking campaigns are as old as the first cigarette. Consider the colorful history of its detractors when smoke got in their eyes.

In the early 1600s, King James I of England denounced the vice, describing it as 'a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.'

Not to be outdone, a former school teacher named Lucy Page Gaston founded one of the earliest anti-smoking groups in tobacco history some 300 years later.

Of course, much like many of today's advocates, Gaston's crusade for a 'clean life' was geared to the young. The earnest reformer launched the Chicago Anti-Cigarette League and later ran for president on an anti-smoking platform, even attacking her opponent, Warren Harding, as having a distrustful 'cigarette face.'

While her outrageous tactics ultimately compromised her views and led to her forced resignation from the group in 1919, Gaston's efforts marked the historic beginning of a century-long public relations war between the tobacco industry and anti-tobacco groups.

In the past, most anti-smoking advertising was done pro bono and provided by the American Cancer Society or the' American Lung Association. But in 1969, broadcasters were forced to donate equal time to tobacco-control groups. When legislation banned cigarette ads on TV and radio two years later, anti-smoking spots were relegated to off-peak hours. The time slot rendered even the most meaningful messages impotent.

That was then; this is now.

Legislation follows on the heels of exhaustive activism. Much like their past counterparts, anti-smoking crusaders perceive their work as a fight to the finish. 'We are in a war,' insists Colleen Stevens, chief of California's tobacco control media campaign. 'The media is the air cover and the other programs our ground troops.'

The prospect of a national commitment in the battle against tobacco offers tremendous encouragement to health groups nationwide. 'We are pleased [with recent developments],' adds Stevens. 'The more players that are out there, the better. This is a national tragedy.'

National health groups estimate there are approximately 45 million smokers in the United States and that some 3,000 teenagers pick up the habit every day.

'The tobacco industry spends $6 billion to make smoking part of the culture, to make people think it is normal,' says Stevens. 'There's nothing normal about it. One-third to one-half of the people who smoke die from smoking-related illnesses.'

Ironically, the talents of the advertising community, which helped the tobacco companies to expand its $10 billion industry for decadesf40, are now being sought by the government to undo its successes. Agencies that handle state-funded anti-smoking accounts - such as Asher/Gould in Los Angeles, Houston Herstek Favat in Boston and The Riester Corp. in Phoenix - are charged with the task of un-selling one of the most heavily marketed products of the 20th century.

'It is a very challenging account,' admits Bruce Dundore, executive vice president and creative director of Asher/Gould. Since 1994, his agency has worked on the California Department of Health Services' (CDHS) tobacco-control account, which currently spends an estimated $22 million on media.

'It's tough to get people not to buy stuff, especially when it's a product equated with pleasure,' Gould admits. Still, Asher/Gould hasn't been timid in its criticism of the tobacco industry. One of the agency's early spots for the CDHS featured footage of the heads of major tobacco companies testifying before Congress that they did not believe nicotine was addictive.

'Now the tobacco industry tells us secondhand smoke isn't dangerous. Do they think we're stupid?' asks the voiceover. Another controversial spot showed a man fishing, reeling in one after another. Close-ups show the fish lying on the deck, struggling to breathe. 'The tobacco industry knows the more nicotine their cigarettes have, the more hooked you'll be,' the ad notes. 'But you know what they say. There's plenty more fish in the sea. They profit; you lose. The tobacco industry.'

In one spot, for example, the cowboys of Marlboro country are cast as tobacco marketers and their cattle is a herd of children. 'This is how the guys who make cigarettes want you to see them, and this is how they see you,' says the voiceover, while the ranchers steer the kids into a pen. 'Once they get you where they want you, they've got you for life. If you knew what they thought,' the spot warns, 'you'd think twice.'

Some of the agency's most powerful spots show the harsh medical realities of the effects of smoking. In one memorable ad, a man sings 'Happy Birthday' to the tobacco industry through the shrill, electronic tones of his voice box. 'Celebrating 121 years of fine tobacco products,' says the spot. 'It's time we made smoking history.'

A powerful Houston Herstek campaign called 'The Truth' features testimonials from ex-employees and former supporters of the tobacco industry. In one spot, former tobacco lobbyist Victor Crawford speaks out on the industry's recruitment of young smokers. 'I was a lobbyist, and I know how tobacco companies work ... I lied, and I'm sorry,' he says. The spot ends with a frame stating that Crawford later died from throat cancer. 'It was sort of a deathbed confession,' says Pete Favat, creative director and partner at the agency.

In a recent ad in the series, the brother of one of the Marlboro man models tells of his sibling's death from lung cancer. Another Houston Herstek spot features a powerful endorsement for the anti-smoking movement. Patrick Reynolds, grandson of R.J. Reynolds, talks about the hidden chemicals found in cigarettes. 'Why am I telling you this?' he asks. 'I want my family to be on the right side for a change.'

'We don't want the ads to be lofty messages from the government,' says Favat. 'We wanted the messages to come from kids and people involved in the industries.' Teen ads have focused on anti-social aspects of smoking, such as one graphic ad that shows how ugly a smoker can be on a date when he coughs up a lung.

In Arizona, The Riester Corp. has adopted the vernacular of teenagers to reach them in a $20 million campaign that calls smoking a 'tumor-causing, teeth-staining, smelly, puking habit.' The campaign, according to David Robb, vice president and creative director of The Riester Corp., attempts to take the 'cool' out of cigarette smoking.

'They can listen to what the tobacco industry is telling them, but I am giving them another brand - not smoking,' says Robb. 'We are giving them the ammunition to say, 'I'm OK if I don't smoke.'

The ad campaign, which the Center for Disease Control recently distributed to 15 more states, is augmented with the 'Ash-Kicker,' a 43-foot traveling exhibition that gives children the unusual experience of walking through a model of a smoker's diseased body.

'It's a horror show. Kids love it,' says Robb. The agency has also borrowed a popular marketing technique from cigarette companies - merchandising. It sells T-shirts, caps and other items branded with the ad slogan.

Not surprisingly, the lackluster results have left some taxpayers skeptical of the power of the advertising. 'Antismoking ads are a great way to win awards,' says Boston-based freelance copywriter John Welsh. 'It's like any other advertising. It's not a science. Some ads work; some don't. If you have a cousin who dies of lung cancer, that's more powerful than any commercial.'

'It's great to sell products, but with this account, maybe I can save a kid from smoking. We're known as such shills in this business,' Favat muses. 'Hopefully, we will look back on cigarette advertisements as something of the past. We need to strip down an American icon.'

'God is on your side with an account like this,' adds Robb. 'You are dealing with a behavioral issue here.' He sees his anti-smoking work in terms of David and Goliath. 'We're the little guys against the big corporate giants. It's a challenge. Can it be done? Well, you want to be the one who does it. You want to go out and slay the dragon.'

aswe000020011005dtad000fj

Le Mirador to Become First Smoke-Free 5-Star Hotel in Europe

1,033 words
15 October 1997
12:18 pm
PR Newswire

1997, PR Newswire)

VEVEY, Switzerland, Oct. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Le Mirador Hotel and Spa in Switzerland announced today that it will become the first smoke-free 5-Star hotel in Europe. On November 1, smoking will be banned in all three of its restaurants, as well as its lobby, bar, salon, hallways, elevators, restrooms, limos, spa, pool and other public areas. It will become the first member of The Leading Hotels of the World and Preferred Hotels & Resorts Worldwide to adopt this policy. Le Mirador makes this bold move at a time when smoke-free bars, lounges and restaurants are virtually nonexistent in Europe.

Located on Mont-Pelerin, 1200 feet above Lake Geneva, Le Mirador features a panoramic view of the lake, the Alps and the Swiss Riviera. It is about 20 minutes from Lausanne; about 50 minutes from Geneva.

Le Mirador's American owner Joseph M. Segel said, "Everyone tells us that breaking with European hotel tradition and catering primarily to non-smokers is a very bold thing to do, but we don't mind being a pioneer. Recent surveys show that a majority of travelers would prefer staying at a hotel where they won't be exposed to tobacco smoke, so we feel that this is an idea whose time has come. And with the air in this part of Switzerland so clean and pure, it's an exciting mission to make the air inside Le Mirador as refreshing as it is outside. We intend to become an international oasis for non-smokers.

"While in all cases precedence will be given to the interests of non-smokers, smokers will not be left completely out in the cold," Segel said. "We will have a separately-ventilated smokers' lounge and a small number of smoking-optional rooms, each equipped with an independent ventilation system to prevent tobacco smoke from getting into any other part of the hotel. Our new policy, very simply, will be to make sure that no guests will be bothered by tobacco smoke anywhere at Le Mirador."

Segel is no stranger to innovation. He was the founder of The Franklin Mint and QVC Network. Just a few months ago he shook up the cosmetic industry by having the Spa at Le Mirador conduct an international competition, utilizing double-blind testing by an independent American testing laboratory to cut through conflicting claims and find out which skincare products really work best.

As an additional service for guests who are smokers and are having difficulty quitting, on November 1 Le Mirador's Spa will begin offering week- long smoking cessation programs. After February 1, weekend programs will also be offered. Le Mirador's smoking cessation programs will be medically supervised and will be individually personalized with a blend of motivation, stress management, mild exercise, healthy cuisine, herbal supplements, and the latest nicotine substitution products.

The decision to go smoke-free comes at a time when 9.5 million Americans are expected to visit Europe this year, according to the European Travel Commission. Surveys of American travelers have indicated that their most anticipated activity is restaurant dining. And according to a new nationwide ICR survey released today, an overwhelming majority (82.6%) of Americans traveling to Europe prefer dining in a smoke-free environment.

There is strong medical support for protecting people from secondhand smoke. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the annual number of deaths attributable to exposure to airborne tobacco smoke in the U.S. alone is 53,000. And a new report from researchers at the Harvard School or Public Health found that secondhand cigarette smoke is "far more dangerous than previously thought." The results of the 10-year Harvard study found that regular exposure to secondhand smoke almost doubled the risk of heart disease, dwarfing the number of deaths from lung cancer.

Health Advocates Applaud Le Mirador's Initiative

Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, one of the best known experts on fitness and preventive medicine, whose books have sold more than 30 million copies, commented, "My first and greatest commandment of good health has always been -- don't smoke! We must also try to stay away from airborne tobacco smoke, which is toxic and very unhealthy to breathe. My wife and I have personally enjoyed the refreshing air of Mont Pelerin and the beautiful facilities at Le Mirador, and we are gratified to hear that Le Mirador is taking the lead in introducing the smoke-free concept to Europe. We can now look forward to enjoying it all the more when we return."

Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds and The President of The Foundation for a Smokefree America, enthusiastically endorses Le Mirador's move to go smoke-free. "Several of my closest relatives, including my father and brother, have died from smoking-related diseases," Reynolds said, "so I have chosen to devote my life to spreading the word that both smoking and smoke are unhealthy. Hotels have been particularly slow to get that message. Le Mirador is one of the most beautiful and relaxing resorts I have ever stayed at, and I am delighted to learn that it's going to lead the way for European hotels. By becoming the first smoke-free 5-star resort in Europe, Le Mirador deserves to rise to the top of every health- conscious traveler's list of places to visit. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to break with tradition. I say 'Bravo' to Le Mirador's owners for having the courage to do this."

Michael H. Samuelson, noted health-issues spokesperson and President of The National Center for Health Promotion, whose programs on smoking cessation have been used by over 2 million people, said, "Having just returned from Europe, it's clear to me that Le Mirador is taking a leadership position in the, area of passive smoke and guest relations, a position that many others are eventually likely to follow."

/NOTE TO EDITORS: Color slides available upon request/

/CONTACT: Susan Bang or Emily Collins of Lou Hammond & Assoc., 212-308-8880, or susanb@lhammond.com , for Le Mirador/ 12:02 EDT

prn0000020011008dtaf02jhb

Le Mirador to Become First Smoke-Free 5-Star Hotel in Europe

1,033 words
16 October 1997
04:46 pm
PR Newswire

1997, PR Newswire)

VEVEY, Switzerland, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Le Mirador Hotel and Spa in Switzerland announced today that it will become the first smoke-free 5-Star hotel in Europe. On November 1, smoking will be banned in all three of its restaurants, as well as its lobby, bar, salon, hallways, elevators, restrooms, limos, spa, pool and other public areas. It will become the first member of The Leading Hotels of the World and Preferred Hotels & Resorts Worldwide to adopt this policy. Le Mirador makes this bold move at a time when smoke-free bars, lounges and restaurants are virtually nonexistent in Europe.

Health Advocates Applaud Le Mirador's Initiative

/NOTE TO EDITORS: Color slides available upon request/

/CONTACT: Susan Bang or Emily Collins of Lou Hammond & Assoc., 212-308-8880, or susanb@lhammond.com , for Le Mirador/ 16:31 EDT

prn0000020011008dtag02kb5

Reynolds heir is outspoken anti-smoking advocate

335 words
30 October 1997
04:12 pm
Associated Press Newswires

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) - Patrick Reynolds has come full circule.

He's a grandson of tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds. But in 1979, he sold all his stock in the company. Six years later he quit smoking after 15 years and now is an outspoken anti-smoking advocate.

He had to face the ire of disapproving relatives.

He had a heated discussion with his two brothers and a stepbrother. They worried the price of their stock might drop and concerned about the adverse publicity and the family name being discredited.

"The stock rose in price, and I brought credit to the Reynolds' name," the founder of the Foundation for a Smokefree America told an audience at Idaho State University Wednesday night. Reynolds was keynote speaker at the Ninth Annual Idaho Conference on Health Care.

He wrote "The Gilded Leaf," an autobiography.

The Beverly Hills resident has appeared on national news programs such as "Nightline" and "Crossfire" to advocate campaign financing reform, an increase in the cigarette tax and keeping tobacco away from young people.

Reynolds said 3,000 American teen-agers are getting addicted to tobacco each day. About 500 million people or 9 percent of the world's population will die from cigarettes.

"I'll do this work the rest of my life," he said.

Reynolds said a settlement reached by state attorneys general against tobacco companies is good, but he doesn't see much hope of it getting through Congress. That's because of the tremendous amount of money the tobacco industry pours into campaign coffers, especially those of the Republican Party, he said.

Reynolds rarely saw his father after his parents divorced when he was 3, but he is passionate about his belief that tobacco killed his father, his grandfather and his eldest brother. They all died of cancer.

R.J., who chewed tobacco all his life, died of pancreatic cancer in 1918. His father, a lifetime smoker, died of emphysema when Reynolds was 15.

Rush

aprs000020011005dtau0kqk3

Reynolds heir is outspoken anti-smoking advocate

335 words
31 October 1997
02:19 am
Associated Press Newswires

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) - Patrick Reynolds has come full circule.

He had to face the ire of disapproving relatives.

He had a heated discussion with his two brothers and a stepbrother. They worried the price of their stock might drop and concerned about the adverse publicity and the family name being discredited.

He wrote "The Gilded Leaf," an autobiography.

Reynolds said 3,000 American teen-agers are getting addicted to tobacco each day. About 500 million people or 9 percent of the world's population will die from cigarettes.

"I'll do this work the rest of my life," he said.

R.J., who chewed tobacco all his life, died of pancreatic cancer in 1918. His father, a lifetime smoker, died of emphysema when Reynolds was 15.

Rush

aprs000020011005dtav0ksfg

NORTHWEST
Sunday Northwest Around The Region

OREGON EUGENE POLICE FIRE TEAR GAS AT 300 HALLOWEEN PARTIERS

From correspondent and wire reports
667 words
2 November 1997
Portland Oregonian
SUNRISE
B04

Oregon

Eugene police fire tear gas at 300 Halloween partiers EUGENE -- Police fired tear gas at a crowd of about 300 Halloween revelers after they tore down light poles and threw bottles and rocks at officers who tried to break up a party.

The melee started about 10:30 p.m. when police received calls that an off-campus party in the University of Oregon sorority row area was out of control.

When officers arrived to break up the party, a crowd gathered outside started to lob bottles and rocks at them, police said.

When the crowd of partiers began to move north on Alder Street, breaking bottles and tearing down light poles, officers fired tear gas into the fray.

Police did not have information Saturday as to whether any arrests were made.

Holy Rosary Medical Center lays off 3 top administrators

ONTARIO -- To help cover an expected $400,000 cut in Medicare reimbursements, Holy Rosary Medical Center has laid off three top administrators and eliminated two other positions that are vacant.

The layoffs included the director of human resources, the vice president of support services and the vice president of corporate development.

One person will be hired as the director of human resources for the Catholic Health Initiatives' four area hospitals in Nampa, Idaho, and Pendleton, Baker City and Ontario. Responsibilities for the other positions will be spread among remaining staff, said Bruce Jensen, Holy Rosary chief executive officer.

The Medicare cut, which stems from the most recent budget passed by Congress, takes effect this month.

Silt overwhelms water plant; Salem switches to reserves

SALEM -- Heavy silt in the North Santiam River has closed Salem's municipal water supply, forcing the city to switch to reserves.

The shutdown occurred Thursday when silt overwhelmed the Geren Island water treatment plant's filtration system.

Thursday's heavy rains also swept a commercial generator into the river early Friday, spilling 30 gallons of diesel fuel near the treatment plant, just downriver of the plant's water intake valve.

But city officials said the spill posed no danger to drinking water because the fuel didn't get into the plant's filters.

The 125-kilowatt generator had been used since June to pump water from a construction site where workers are building a new water intake structure. Heavy rains Thursday night caused the river to rise quickly, and water breached a temporary dam near the construction site, washing away the generator and spilling fuel. Washington

Judge grants request, delays sentencing for bank robber

SPOKANE -- Sentencing was postponed for an Idaho man convicted of pipe bombings and bank robberies after he asked a judge Friday for more time to prepare.

Charles H. Barbee, 43, of Sandpoint, Idaho, was scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen. But the judge delayed sentencing until Tuesday so Barbee could meet with counsel about a pre-sentence report.

Nielsen denied a number of other motions filed by a contentious Barbee, including one for a new trial. Idaho

Tobacco giant's grandson campaigns against smoking

POCATELLO -- Patrick Reynolds has come full circle.

He's a grandson of tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds. But in 1979, he sold all his stock in the company. Six years later, he quit smoking after 15 years, and now he is an outspoken anti-smoking advocate.

He had to face the ire of disapproving relatives.

He had a heated discussion with his two brothers and a stepbrother. They worried that the price of their stock might drop and expressed concern about adverse publicity and discredit on the family name.

Reynolds, the founder of the Foundation for a Smokefree America, told an audience Wednesday night at Idaho State University that 3,000 U.S. teen-agers become addicted to tobacco each day. About 500 million people, or 9 percent of the world's population, will die from cigarettes.

por0000020011008dtb201zti

METRO

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE DRIVES MESSAGE OF ANTI-TOBBACO ACTIVIST HE IS THE GRANDSON OF TOBACCO COMPANY FOUNDER HE SPEAKS AT SCHOOLS HERE TODAY

Robert Steyer Of The Post-Dispatch
551 words
5 December 1997
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
FIVE STAR LIFT
C3

How do you convince children and teen-agers to stop smoking or, better yet, never to start?

For Patrick Reynolds, the sales pitch includes some hard facts, some riveting examples and enough common-sense talk that youngsters and teen-agers aren't put off by another adult telling them what to do.

"I try to make a very strong impression," said Reynolds, who kicked the habit in 1985 after years of anti-smoking therapies that ranged from acupuncture to hypnosis.

But Reynolds, who will be in the St. Louis area today, has a more impressive pedigree than just being an ex-smoker. He's the grandson of the founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

He notes that his brother died of smoking-related heart and lung disease three years ago. And he remembers his father dying slowly, short of breath, a victim of the lung disease emphysema and a lifetime of smoking.

Even though his father died a lingering, wasting death in 1964, Reynolds tells his audiences that he began smoking that same year when he was 15.

"I let them know that a majority of smokers start before the age of 14," he said. Most become addicted before they reach 19, he added.

Reynolds will deliver that message at 9:30 a.m. today to Southwest Middle School, at 701 Wren Avenue, in Ballwin, and at noon to the St. Louis University School of Nursing, at 3525 Caroline Mall.

Reynolds tries to reach younger children with satire.

He turns the infamous cigarette-company cartoon character Joe Camel into Joe Chemo, an unhappy camel sitting in a hospital bed with an intravenous chemotherapy tube sticking in his arm.

He transforms the rugged Wild West ads touting Marlboro Country into a picture of Malboro Country, where shivering workers huddle outside their office during a quick cigarette break.

But he'll also use some graphic case studies. To illustrate the danger of chewing tobacco, Reynolds shows the photograph of a healthy high school track star.

He then recounts the boy's use of chewing tobacco, which resulted in the surgical removal of his tongue and half his jaw. He concludes the story by showing a picture of the teen-ager after surgery.

"This is a childhood disease," said Reynolds, 48, president of the Foundation for a Smokefree America, in Beverly Hills, Calif., an organization that promotes the raising of federal and state tobacco product taxes and the limiting of tobacco advertising.

Reynolds finds that teen-agers are a tougher audience, in part, because many of them have begun smoking.

"A lot of teens don't believe in the future," Reynolds said. "Alcohol, drugs and smoking are related to their lack of faith in the future."

So Reynolds preaches optimism amid the downbeat statistics of rising rates of young smokers and the examples drawn from today's teens as well as from his own life.

"It's very important for teens to think independently," Reynolds said. "I tell them, `Don't express your individuality by using the crutch of a cigarette. It's a sign of weakness.' "

PHOTO; Caption: Photo headshot - (Patrick) Reynolds

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NATIONAL

CITIES, STATES NOT WAITING, MOVE AGAINST TOBACCO
IT IS UNCLEAR WHEN AND IN WHAT FORM THE CONTROVERSIAL AND COMPLEX TOBACCO AGREEMENT WILL EMERGE FROM WASHINGTON'S LOBBYIST-FILLED BACK ROOMS.

JOSEPH A. KIRBY, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
748 words
29 December 1997
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
SOONER
A-6

Six months ago, the tobacco industry and state attorneys general hammered out a $368.5 billion agreement that would shield cigarette manufacturers from future lawsuits if, among other things, the companies in return agreed to severely restrict their far-reaching marketing and advertising.

But the agreement, hailed by many as a momentous step toward curbing smoking among teen-agers in the United States, has not yet received congressional approval. Moreover, even proponents say it is unclear when and in what form the controversial and incredibly complex agreement will emerge from Washington's lobbyist-filled (albeit smoke-free) back rooms.

As a result, many cities, municipalities and states aren't waiting for congressional approval of the deal, opting instead to fashion narrower legislation that emulates portions of the proposed national settlement.

This month, for example, New York's City Council, which already has banned smoking in virtually all public places, approved legislation that would bar outdoor cigarette advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, arcades and daycare centers - in essence, much of the city. Similar moves by Chicago, Milwaukee and Tucson prodded New York into action.

In nearby New Jersey, the state legislature, also mimicking several other governmental bodies nationwide, approved a state cigarette tax that greatly increases the price of a pack of cigarettes. New Jersey lawmakers' move effectively will double the Garden State's cigarette tax to 80 cents, making their cigarettes among the most expensive in the country.

By far the largest antitobacco battlefront is California, where cities such as San Francisco and Oakland recently restricted tobacco billboard advertisements.

And, beginning Jan. 1, the state will implement the controversial final phase of a smoking ban that will reach into bars, dance clubs and casinos.

"Officials are doing this because the announced deal needs to be supported by the president and Congress - and we don't see that happening any time soon." New York City Council general counsel Rich Weinberg said of the proposal, which still must be approved by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "In the meantime, we need to try and protect children."

As is to be expected, tobacco industry opponents are celebrating these temporary, stop-gap measures, arguing that the laws will serve as a finger in the anti-smoking legislation dam.

"What's happening across the nation is tremendous," said Patrick Reynolds, the grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds and now an industry opponent. "The cigarette companies can tie up Congress, but they can't get to every state capitol or city hall. Their reach isn't as strong at the local level and that's why this is happening."

Tobacco industry officials, though, see the laws as posturing.

Scott Williams of Bozell, Sawyer, Miller, the public relations firm representing the industry in the national settlement, said the local laws are open to First Amendment challenges, since they might illegally restrict commercial advertising. In addition, many of the measures probably will be superseded by the national settlement, an agreement that is far greater in scope than any local law could be.

The national agreement would bar tobacco advertising on billboards and in some magazines, limit the use of cigarette vending machines, eliminate the industry's sponsorship of concerts and sporting events and ban the sale of clothing bearing the names of cigarette and chewing tobacco manufacturers, according to Williams.

Local officials said their motivation in passing antitobacco initiatives is to protect the health of America's young people. The National Center for Tobacco Free Kids says more than 1 million American teen-agers are smokers. The nonprofit organization estimates that nearly 3,000 more teens begin the habit on a daily basis and that 90 percent of adult smokers began before age 18.

During the past 12 months, states such as Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, North Carolina and Texas have tackled underage smoking directly, enacting laws that impose stiff penalties for minors who try to purchase or possess cigarettes (as well as chewing tobacco). Loss of driver's licenses, fines of up to $1,000 and even imprisonment are among the penalties available under these laws.

President Clinton advocated a $1.50 a pack increase to curb smoking by minors. Antitobacco groups said studies show a 10 percent increase in cigarette prices would reduce consumption by 4 percent.

ppgz000020011008dtct01npi

NEWS

LOCALITIES ENACTING OWN CURBS ON TOBACCO STATES AND CITIES TIRED OF WAITING FOR CONGRESS TO APPROVE SETTLEMENT

Joseph A. Kirby, Tribune Staff Writer.
1,060 words
29 December 1997
Chicago Tribune
NORTH SPORTS FINAL; N
1

The agreement, hailed by some as a momentous step toward curbing smoking among teenagers in the U.S., has not yet received congressional approval. Moreover, even proponents say it is unclear when and in what form the controversial and incredibly complex agreement will emerge from Washington's lobbyist-filled (albeit smoke-free) back rooms.

As a result, many cities, municipalities and states aren't waiting for congressional approval of the deal, opting to fashion narrower legislation that emulates portions of the proposed national settlement.

This month, New York's City Council, which has banned smoking in virtually all public places, approved an ordinance that would bar outdoor cigarette advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, arcades and day-care centers--in essence, much of the city. Similar moves by Chicago, Milwaukee and Tucson prodded New York to act.

In New Jersey, the legislature, also mimicking several other governmental bodies, approved a state cigarette tax that greatly increases the price of a pack. The lawmakers' move will effectively double the state's cigarette tax to 80 cents per pack, making New Jersey cigarettes among the most expensive in the country.

By far the largest anti-tobacco battle front is California, where San Francisco and Oakland recently restricted tobacco billboard advertisements.

Beginning Jan. 1, the state also will implement the controversial final phase of a far-reaching smoking ban that will reach into bars, dance clubs and casinos.

"Officials are doing this because the announced deal needs to be supported by the president and Congress--and we don't see that happening any time soon," said New York's City Council general counsel Rich Weinberg of the ordinance, which still must be approved by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "In the meantime, we need to try and protect children."

As is to be expected, tobacco industry opponents are celebrating these temporary, stop-gap measures, arguing that the laws will serve as a finger in the anti-smoking legislation dam.

"What's happening across the nation is tremendous," said Patrick Reynolds, the grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds and now an industry opponent. "The cigarette companies can tie up Congress, but they can't get to every state capitol or city hall. Their reach isn't as strong at the local level, and that's why this is happening."

Tobacco industry officials see the laws as posturing.

Scott Williams of Bozell, Sawyer, Miller, the public-relations firm representing the industry in the national settlement, said the local laws are open to 1st Amendment challenges because they might illegally restrict commercial advertising. In addition, many of the measures probably will be superseded by the national settlement, an agreement that is far greater in scope than any local law could be.

The national agreement would bar tobacco advertising on billboards and in some magazines, limit the use of cigarette vending machines, eliminate the industry's sponsorship of concerts and sporting events, and ban the sale of clothing bearing the names of cigarette and chewing tobacco manufacturers, Williams said.

"I understand that (municipalities) are in a predicament, having to wait for word from Washington," Williams said, "but I don't think that their argument holds much water. It doesn't make any sense not to wait. No jurisdiction could do what's part of this settlement. What they ought to go is get on board, support it, and lobby Congress and the president to approve it."

Local officials said their motivation in passing anti-tobacco initiatives is to protect the health of America's young people. The National Center for Tobacco Free Kids says more than 1 million American teenagers are smokers. The non-profit organization estimates that nearly 3,000 more teens begin the habit on a daily basis and that 90 percent of adult smokers began before age 18.

Over the last 12 months, Florida, Idaho, Minnesota, North Carolina and Texas have tackled underage smoking directly, enacting laws that impose stiff penalties for minors who try to purchase or are in possession of tobacco products. Loss of driver's license, fines of up to $1,000 and even imprisonment are among the available penalties.

President Clinton has advocated a $1.50-a-pack increase to curb smoking by minors. Anti-tobacco groups said that studies show that a 10 percent increase in cigarette prices would reduce consumption by 4 percent.

Many local officials said they were emboldened to pass laws based on the experience of Baltimore, which began a campaign against cigarette and liquor advertising in 1994, well before last summer's tentative national agreement. The Baltimore law was unsuccessfully challenged by an outdoor sign company, which argued that measure impinged on the firm's right to free speech.

"Baltimore started this whole movement," said John Fricke, a policy adviser to Elihu Harris, the mayor of Oakland, which recently approved a ban on outdoor tobacco advertising expected to affect more than 1,400 billboards. "Their success alerted people that it could be done. Soon, cities around the country saw that they didn't have to wait for the feds."

Such was the case in New York, where City Council members saw other large cities pass billboard bans and decided to act, Weinberg said. The council's ordinance would radically recast the city's streetscape, forcing businesses to remove thousands of ads on store windows and billboards.

In addition, the ordinance would bar promotions by tobacco manufacturers, including T-shirts or hats bearing cigarette brand names, to anyone younger than 18.

Feeling the pressure from groceries and still unsure of the measure's legality, council members did concede some points: The law would exempt mobile billboards such as on taxis. The proposal also would ban tobacco company ads and signs on storefront windows but allow such signage if it faces inward and is not visible from the street.

Giuliani hasn't announced whether he will sign the measure, but he has said publicly that he supports such initiatives.

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Nation-World

Five Utah Bills Seek to Separate Kids and Tobacco
Proposed Legislation Targets Store Owners, Advertisers, Users; Utah Bills Seek to Separate Kids, Tobacco

SHIA KAPOS THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
979 words
30 December 1997
The Salt Lake Tribune
A1

It has been six months since state attorneys general settled their much-ballyhooed lawsuit against tobacco companies for $368.5 billion.

But the agreement -- which Utah Atty. Gen. Jan Graham hailed as ``the public-health victory of our lifetime'' -- has yet to receive congressional approval.

Cities and states across the nation, however, are not holding their breath, opting for their own legislation to crack down on tobacco use.

In Utah, there are five tobacco bills proposed in the 1998 Legislature, which convenes next month.

The bills vary in implementation, but they share a common goal: to keep kids from smoking tobacco.

``If we can get people to stop smoking, it's the best public-health thing we could do,'' said Robert Montgomery, R-North Ogden. ``Ninety percent of adults started smoking before they were 19. We all know evidence is out there that smoking has no benefits.''

His bill targets stores that sell tobacco to underage smokers, those younger than 19.

A store now pays a one-time fee of $20 to sell tobacco. Montgomery's law would change that, requiring a store to renew its tobacco-sales license once a year or every few years. ``We're still working on the specifics,'' said Montgomery, a retired physician.

His bill also would put more responsibility on store owners -- rather than just the cashiers -- to keep youths from buying cigarettes. A store would be fined $300 for its first offense, $750 for the second, $1,000 for the third, and $2,000 for the fourth.

On the third offense, a store would lose its license to sell cigarettes for 30 days. And on the fourth, a store would lose its license for two years.

``Currently, there is 30 {percent} to 40 percent noncompliance with the law,'' Montgomery said, adding he hopes his proposal will get businesses' attention.

The Legislature will consider four other measures for regulating tobacco:

-- Targeting the providers. While Montgomery's bill focuses on stores that put cigarettes in the hands of teens, Rep. Carl Saunders, R-Ogden, is looking at teens' friends and family.

His bill would penalize those who furnish cigarettes to young people. ``That includes family,'' said Saunders.

Saunders acknowledged it would be difficult to monitor, especially if young people were sneaking cigarettes from their parents. But he said it is possible for kids to confess how they acquire their cigarettes.

-- Possessing tobacco. Rep. Richard Siddoway, R-Bountiful is proposing an automatic $50 fine or tobacco-cessation class for anyone younger than 19 caught with tobacco. Currently, possession of tobacco is a class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 3 months in jail and up to a $750 fine.

``It's so severe that nobody enforces it,'' Siddoway said. ``This bill would bring {the penalty} down, but it would make it a $50 minimum mandatory fine.''

The proposal drew criticism from the Salt Lake County deputy district attorney. ``It would take the teeth out of the current law,'' said Sim Gill. ``If there aren't any fines being levied, it's not that the law is inappropriate. It's because people in a position to levy those laws aren't doing it.''

-- Regulating sales. Rep. Wayne Harper's bill would allow tobacco sales only under the same criteria as liquor sales. Sales would be dictated by their location -- as in how close it is to a school or church. It is easy to buy cigarettes when the 7-Eleven is just steps away from a school, said the West Jordan Republican.

``Kids have the ability during lunch or before or after school, to steal or illicitly buy tobacco products,'' Harper said, adding the goal is to ``diminish the access by youth to tobacco products.

-- Sales of products. Keeping tobacco products out of sight of young people also is the goal of Saunders' second tobacco-related bill. This bill would require stores to keep tobacco products out of the aisles and behind lock and key. ``It's too easy for kids to get cigarettes. I want to make it as hard as possible to get them,'' he said.

Utah isn't the only one looking at curbing cigarette smoking.

New York's City Council has approved legislation that would bar outdoor cigarette advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, arcades and day-care centers.

In New Jersey, the Legislature approved a state cigarette tax that greatly increases the price of a pack of cigarettes.

And, beginning Thursday, California will implement the final phase of a smoking ban that will reach into bars, dance clubs and casinos.

Tobacco opponents are celebrating these stop-gap measures, arguing the laws will serve as a finger in the anti-smoking legislation dam.

``What's happening across the nation is tremendous,'' said Patrick Reynolds, the grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds and now an industry opponent. ``The cigarette companies can tie up Congress, but they can't get to every state capitol or city hall.''

Tobacco industry officials, though, see the laws as posturing.

Scott Williams of Bozell, Sawyer, Miller, the public-relations firm representing the industry in the national settlement, said the local laws are open to First Amendment challenges, since they might illegally restrict advertising. In addition, some measures could be superseded by the far-reaching national settlement.

Tribune wire services contributed to this report.

http://www.le.state.ut.us/ http://www.house.gov/commerce/welcome.html

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News

Tobacco fight moving to local level
National proposal awaits approval

Joseph A. Kirby Chicago Tribune
780 words
15 January 1998
Denver Post
Rockies
A-18

NEW YORK - Six months ago, the tobacco industry and state attorneys general hammered out a $368.5 billion agreement that would shield cigarette manufacturers from future lawsuits if, among other things, the companies in return agreed to severely restrict their far-reaching marketing and advertising.

But the agreement, hailed by many as a momentous step toward curbing smoking among teenagers in the United States, has not yet received congressional approval.

Moreover, even proponents say it is unclear when and in what form the controversial and incredibly complex agreement will emerge from Washington's lobbyist-filled (albeit smoke-free) back rooms.

For example, New York's City Council, which already has banned smoking in virtually all public places, approved legislation that would bar outdoor cigarette advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, arcades and day-care centers - in essence, much of the city. Similar moves by Chicago, Milwaukee and Tucson prodded New York into action.

In New Jersey, the state legislature, also mimicking several other governmental bodies nationwide, approved a state cigarette tax that greatly increases the price of a pack of cigarettes. New Jersey's action effectively will double the Garden State's cigarette tax to 80 cents, making their cigarettes among the most expensive in the country.

By far the largest anti-tobacco battlefront is California, where cities such as San Francisco and Oakland recently restricted tobacco billboard advertisements.

On Jan. 1, the state implemented the controversial final phase of a smoking ban that will reach into bars, dance clubs and casinos.

As is to be expected, tobacco industry opponents are celebrating these temporary, stopgap measures, arguing that the laws will serve as a finger in the anti-smoking legislation dam.

Tobacco industry officials, though, see the laws as posturing.

"I understand that (municipalities) are in a predicament, having to wait for word from Washington," Williams said. "But I don't think that their argument holds much water. It doesn't make any sense not to wait. No jurisdiction could do what's part of this settlement. What they ought to go is get on board, support it and lobby Congress and the president to approve it."

Local officials said their motivation in passing anti-tobacco initiatives is to protect the health of America's young people. The National Center for Tobacco Free Kids says more than 1 million American teenagers are smokers. The nonprofit organization estimates that nearly 3,000 more teens begin the habit on a daily basis.

Even President Clinton advocated a $1.50-a-pack increase to curb smoking by minors. Studies indicate that a 10 percent increase in cigarette prices would reduce consumption by 4 percent.

dnvr000020010916du1f0014v

Financial

Marketing Experts Advise Ads Against Youth Smoking
Alcohol Industry Efforts Could Serve as Guide

Beth Berselli
Washington Post Staff Writer
946 words
16 January 1998
The Washington Post
FINAL
G01

, The Washington Post Co

Tobacco companies' marketing techniques are again in the spotlight, after revelations Wednesday that RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co., the second-largest cigarette company, specifically targeted youth smokers in its advertisements.

Advertising and image-building experts agree that in this arena the industry has a public relations problem, with the perception that the tobacco companies are placing their self-interest over public health.

Experts say that tobacco companies can combat these views by emphasizing a message against youth smoking in their advertising, paralleling what the beer industry has done in recent years.

Joe Gleason, managing director of Manning, Selvage & Lee, a Washington public relations firm, said the companies should follow the lead of the alcohol industry and sponsor advertising with a message that essentially is, "If you're under 21, we don't want your business." Those kind of ads speak to a level of "corporate responsibility," said Gleason, who specializes in crisis management.

"There's no magic wand" for the tobacco companies, Gleason said. "It's a long road to rehabilitation in the public's eye . . . but this would at least be a step in the right direction."

Thomas Lom, executive vice president at Saatchi & Saatchi, a New York advertising firm, also supports the idea of an anti-smoking campaign aimed at youth, particularly one featuring youngsters' role models. "Joe Camel made smoking cool; what you've got to do is get Michael Jordan to say it isn't cool," he said.

Lom speaks from experience. In the 1980s he helped Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, handle a public relations nightmare when product tampering led to the deaths of a half-dozen people.

There's one catch, though, Lom said. The industry must voluntarily sponsor such ads, rather than waiting for the government to mandate this. "Everything they've done has been forced upon them . . . they do it kicking and screaming, fighting every step of the way," he said.

For example, RJR decided to retire its longtime winning advertising icon, Joe Camel, last July -- only after the Federal Trade Commission slapped the company with an unfair-advertising complaint.

Experts said the industry's credibility would improve if companies began running anti-smoking ads before final approval of the $368.5 billion settlement reached by the tobacco companies and 40 state attorneys general last June. The settlement, now awaiting congressional approval, requires $500 million to be spent annually on "counter-advertising" that explains the dangers of smoking. The advertising, however, would be run by outside organizations and not by the tobacco companies.

Since the 1960s the companies have taken some steps to send an anti-youth-smoking message. For example, after the FTC first took on the tobacco industry in the mid-1960s, the industry responded with a voluntary cigarette advertising code. It included bans on advertising in publications targeted to youth, such as comic books and school newspapers, as well as a provision prohibiting ads or statements that "smoking is essential to social prominence, distinction, success or sexual attraction."

One problem with such an anti-smoking campaign, some advertisers said, is that they lack the sizzle of Joe Camel or the Marlboro Man and aren't as attractive to the tobacco companies, which are in business to sell cigarettes.

Al Ries, chairman of Ries & Ries, a Roswell, Ga., marketing-strategy firm, pointed out that brand loyalty is formed during one's youth, and this is particularly true for cigarettes.

In a real sense, he said, a tobacco company's profits depend on attracting young smokers, who may be drawn in by advertising. The problem is particularly acute for RJR because it's not the brand leader. "If RJR did not target young people, it would be out of business," Ries said.

If RJR or another tobacco company was his client, Ries said he would advise them to "split the difference" -- that is, run enough youth-focused advertising to keep customers but at the same time run public education ads to satisfy critics.

Some ad agencies have found ways to spice up anti-smoking advertising and have built their creative reputation on their talent for doing so. Arnold Communications, a Boston ad agency, has developed award-winning commercials for the Massachusetts Department of Health on the dangers of smoking. The account is worth $12 million in billings.

One spot shows a man singing "Happy Birthday" to the tobacco industry through the electronic tones of his voice box. "Celebrating 121 years of fine tobacco products," the commercial says. "It's time we made smoking history."

In another recent Arnold ad, the brother of one of the Marlboro Man models describes his sibling's death from lung cancer.

Another ad features an anti-smoking message from Patrick Reynolds, the grandson of R. J. Reynolds. "Why am I telling you this?" he asks. "I want my family to be on the right side for a change."

Lisa Unsworth, executive vice president at Arnold, said the "edgy" nature of these ads has caught children's attention -- the same way that Joe Camel, the Virginia Slims woman and other tobacco icons have done in the past.

"We're fighting an age-old rite of passage for kids," she said. "Smoking is one the things you do when traveling down the path from being a kid to being an adult. We're fighting a social norm.

"In the five years we've done this kind of advertising, we've seen significant changes in attitude as it relates to kids' desire to smoke," she added.

http://www.washingtonpost.com

HEADLINE: Reynolds heir calls for tobacco tax

Greg Stone
653 words
23 January 1998
the Charleston Gazette
P1C

STAFF WRITER

A little sore popped up in the track star's mouth. It was still there a week later.

His doctor tested it and called the boy's mother. She got the news and started crying.

"Son, you've got cancer in your tongue," she told him, sobbing. Doctors had to remove it. In another year, his jaw and half of his nose were gone, but the cancer was still there.

The 19-year-old athlete died of oral cancer brought on by rubbing snuff.

Patrick Reynolds recounted that story to a hushed audience Thursday during the West Virginia Hospital Association's Legislative Days program at the Charleston Marriott.

Reynolds - equal parts evangelist, touchy-feely philosopher and motivational speaker - is the grandson of R.J. Reynolds, one of America's founding tobacco magnates.

One brother has nearly disowned the 49-year-old Reynolds for waging his ceaseless media and legislative campaign against the tobacco industry. Other family members are tolerant of his breaking ranks, he said. Some even say he has brought honor to the family name, Reynolds said.

Reynolds sold all his R.J. Reynolds stock in 1979. "I had a cigarette in one hand and a telephone in the other. I told my stockbroker that I'm not going to enjoy a living from what I'm addicted to."

Eventually, Reynolds quit smoking and became interested in the tobacco tax issue. In 1986, Sen. Robert Packwood asked him to testify before a Senate subcommittee.

The more educated Reynolds became, the more fervently he became involved in the tobacco control crusade. Reynolds worked to help pass a 25-cent increase on cigarettes in California and took part in a similar effort in Alaska.

Reynolds urged people attending Thursday's program to call Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin.

"I talked with Earl Ray today," Reynolds said. "He's a nice man. He's a smoker. Tell him, 'Earl Ray, thanks for getting the cigarette tax on the agenda.'"

West Virginia has a tax of 17 cents on cigarettes but no tax on smokeless tobacco, which Reynolds called "amazing." The Mountain State ranks at the top of the nation in terms of both kinds of tobacco consumption.

Reynolds' grandfather died of cancer of the pancreas, which may have a link to long-term smoking. His father and oldest brother both died of smoking-related illnesses.

Tobacco companies and other big corporations have assumed too much power in America, Reynolds said.

"People talk about government intruding in our lives, but what about the big corporations in our lives?" he asked. "Today, corporations practically have control of our legislatures."

Such tobacco company power has led to the increased targeting of young people, he said. Many teen-agers fall victim to smoking, he said, because they see little future in America.

Today's global economy, partly spurred by the North American Free Trade Agreement, has cost America jobs.

Kids should be urged to think positively about their futures, he said. "The future's looking great. We've got to get our bodies in shape for the 21st century."

Reynolds urged those attending Thursday's session to use "I feel" statements. Expressing emotions in such a way allows us to connect with each other and gets attention, he said.

Cinny Kittle, director for the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free West Virginia, said the American Cancer Society is lobbying this legislative session for a tax increase bill.

Such a bill would increase the cigarette tax to 67 cents a pack and set the smokeless tobacco tax at 50 percent of the wholesale price.

"Last year, there was some support for it," Kittle said. "We hope people were educated about the issue last year and will do something about it this year."

The idea of increased taxes is to discourage tobacco consumption while generating more revenue for worthwhile government programs.

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Reynolds heir fights smoking - Increase in cigarette tax urged

THERESE S. COX
524 words
23 January 1998
Charleston Daily Mail
P5C

His grandfather chewed tobacco and died of pancreas cancer.

A tobacco-caused cancer also killed his father.

And emphysema, brought on by smoking, took the life of his brother, R.J. Reynolds III.

Patrick Reynolds is fighting back.

President of the California-based Foundation for a Smoke-Free America, Reynolds, 49, described his stop-smoking battle Thursday to members of the West Virginia Hospital Association at their annual legislative briefing.

"A smoke-free society is definitely on its way," Reynolds said to an audience of about 200.

The grandson of the tobacco magnate, Reynolds helped pass the 25-cent per pack cigarette tax increase in California in 1988. He was involved in getting the six-hour smoking ban on U.S. domestic flights. And he has testified in Congress in favor of banning all cigarette advertising.

His West Virginia mission?

"To convince the Legislature it's time to increase the cigarette tax," he said.

A number of studies have shown that increases in the cost of cigarettes result in corresponding decreases in sales to youth, he said.

Reynolds encouraged smoke-free advocates to give Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin a call, thanking him in advance for considering putting the proposed 57-cent tobacco tax hike on the legislative agenda.

Currently, West Virginia imposes a 17 cents a pack tax, with no increases since the late 1970s.

Smokeless tobacco is not taxed at all, though the state ranks first in the nation in smokeless tobacco use.

At a morning meeting with Tomblin, Reynolds learned that Tomblin was a nice person, even though he smoked, he said.

Be positive with the message to Tomblin, he told the audience. "It will save our kids from premature death."

Once a smoker, Reynolds pressed himself into service in 1986, after he asked a U.S. senator why the tobacco tax was so low.

The U.S. levies the second-lowest cigarette taxes in the world, after Spain.

The senator responded by asking Reynolds to appear before a committee discussing the subject that very day.

Though he begged out, the incident aroused his interest.

A couple of years later, he sold his inherited stock in the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company. He declined to reveal what he made.

"My family was pretty upset with me at first," said Reynolds, a resident of Beverly Hills. "Now they see I brought credit to the family."

No member of the Reynolds family has worked in management at the tobacco company for a half-century, Reynolds said.

His father, though, never knew of the son's activities as a champion of a smoke-free society.

R.J. Reynolds died when Patrick was only 15. His parents had divorced 12 years earlier.

The first R.J., described by his grandson as a robber baron, had several illegitimate children and peddled moonshine.

Patrick's own father also was a playboy and once the chairman of the Democratic Party. He married four times.

"They called my mother the redheaded gold digger actress from California," he said. "She was not accepted in the Reynolds family."

News; Domestic

Smokers' Rights

Catherine Crier
2,812 words
5 February 1998
08:00 pm
Fox News: The Crier Report

Federal Clearing House.

CRIER: Welcome to THE CRIER REPORT. I'm Catherine Crier. Blowing smoke is not a rarity in Washington, but it's getting scarce in other places like the local bar. Should smoking be banned when patrons want to light up? We'll take a look at the stand off over smokers' rights in California.

Have you taken a look at your pay stub lately? Not much left after the taxes come out. So what are you getting for all of that money? I'll have a report.

Back in 1978, the world was shocked by allegations that legendary film star Joan Crawford abused her children. Now 20 years after the release of "Mommie Dearest," Christina Crawford reveals even more about her troubled past. It's all straight ahead on this edition of THE CRIER REPORT.

It's been called the worse of civilization's evil empires, a curse on American history, and morally equivalent to being sprayed with machine gun fire. What is this insidious blight on society? Well, all of these omenous words have been used to describe smoking and the tobacco industry. National, state and local government officials are struggling to try and regulate the tobacco industry, while public places where smokers can smoke have been shrinking.

Is the anti-smoking movement going too far? Joining me from Los Angeles is Patrick Reynolds of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free America and grandson of R.J. Reynolds. And Reason Magazine Senior Editor Jacob Sullum, author of the upcoming book, "For your Own Good: The Anti-Smoking Crusade and the Tyranny of Public Health." Welcome, gentlemen.

REYNOLDS: Thank you.

SULLUM: Hi.

CRIER: Patrick, let me start with you. If someone wants to kill themselves with cigarettes, what business is it of yours?

REYNOLDS: Well, you know, it's really about the fact that 90 percent of all smokers get addicted before their 19th birthday. So it's only children who become addicted. It's as addicting as heroin. And I think that that's something that we can do. I mean, this right wing spin that we don't need big government in our lives. What about the big corporations in our lives? Haven't they acquired too much power over our elected officials?

And the tobacco industry is a great example. The Congress has done nothing in 30 years to limit tobacco advertising. They've done nothing in 30 years to substantially raise the federal cigarette tax. And our children can easily buy cigarettes over the counter a majority of the time.

CRIER: That still doesn't answer my question. Let's try and focus. And that is if anyone - and I don't know that many are for kids smoking.

But if anyone wants to smoke, let's say over 18, why are you trying to curb that right?

REYNOLDS: Well, secondhand smoke clearly is a danger to non-smokers. It causes lung cancer and heart disease. And far from being the work of fanatics, these are reasonable laws to protect the health of non-smokers.

You know, when the automobile came out, a lot of people were against the automobile. But this is the wave of the future, and this is what's coming.

CRIER: OK. Jacob, this seems to be the crux of the debate now days is not so much the individual's right to smoke in private, but when you're talking about secondhand smoke, you're talking about public tax dollars going to care for ailing smokers. Doesn't that increase the public's right to limit one's behavior?

SULLUM: Well, I think these are all the kinds of arguments that you hear when people in the anti-smoking movement are trying to explain why they're not just trying to protect adults from their own risky choices. And I think that these are basically a smoke screen, if you'll excuse the expression.

For example, we're not talking about children, OK. The vast majority of smokers are adults. It's true that most smokers do start as teenagers. But the fact that smoking can be characterized as an addiction and that it's difficult to stop does not mean that it's impossible to stop. Eighteen-year-olds do not get lung cancer, OK. People get lung cancer from smoking for decades and well into adulthood, and they continue to make that decision.

CRIER: OK. We're really not here tonight to go through the old debates because what's going on in California right now is they had a ban on smoking in bars and casinos, night clubs, this sort of thing. And now one portion of the Assembly has come along - the Assembly, in fact, has come along and said now we're going to lift the ban at least until 2001.

And what we're thinking about doing is not imposing it until then. Now the State Senate has to decide. This is a movement that's going on around the country.

SULLUM: Right.

CRIER: What's the matter with prohibiting smoke in public places like clubs and bars?

SULLUM: Well, in fact you say public places. But in fact these are privately owned establishments. There are a lot of people who would like to smoke while they're drinking in a bar. There are a lot of bartenders who would like to allow them to do so. There are a lot of people who are willing to work in those establishments. But the government is saying no, you may not do that. Now this is purely a voluntary situation. If people don't like smoke, they don't have to go into the bar whether it's because it irritates them or because they're concerned about the possible health impact of it. This is all purely voluntary. There's really no justification for government intervention in this case.

CRIER: OK. But doesn't this sound like the same sort of arguments that we hear with the drug laws? I mean, why not legalize heroin if it's sort of that libertarian, everybody do what they please, and we don't have to worry about it. Because most heroin addicts are over in a corner, crumpled up. They're not doing anything. And it's only because they cannot - at least the argument goes, cannot get the stuff that crime occurs.

SULLUM: Well, as you probably know, I favor legalizing heroin.

CRIER: No, actually I didn't know.

SULLUM: I do favor legalizing heroin, and I do think that this is of a piece with those kinds of issues. What you're seeing now in this country is that people are starting to see tobacco as more like a drug which it, of course, is. For a long time, it was so well accepted that it wasn't even seen as a drug. And so if you view it as a drug, you have to say, well, what are the hazards of it, what are the consequences of using it. In some ways, the consequences are more severe than using heroin.

CRIER: But public argument - and actually I want everybody at home to know that we've lost contact right now with Los Angeles. So Patrick isn't being ignored. We're just trying to set up contact with him again. But the airline stewardesses and the flight attendants came along and said we couldn't choose whether or not to go in and work at a place. We were in a closed in cabin in an airliner that people were allowed to smoke in. What about something like that? Do they have a legitimate argument?

SULLUM: It actually is not true that they couldn't choose. They chose to go into that line of work, and in that line of work you get exposed to secondhand smoke. Everybody.

CRIER: But that wasn't a consequence. That wasn't a chosen consequence of a profession like that.

SULLUM: It's part of the profession. I mean, boxers get hit in the face as part of their profession. People who work in bars get exposed to secondhand smoke. It used to be that people who worked on airplanes got exposed to secondhand smoke as part of the job. They knew that going into it.

CRIER: This is your profession, and you've got to leave it unless you're willing to succumb to exposure to second hand smoke.

SULLUM: Yeah, exactly right. I mean, this is what..

CRIER: And you buy that as a legitimate argument?

SULLUM: This is freedom of contract and freedom of association. And we choose the jobs that we go into. Everybody has something about their job that they don't quite like. We can't dictate terms to other people.

We can say this is what we're willing to put up with, and if they go along with it, fine. If not, you can go elsewhere.

CRIER: All right. Well, I bet Patrick has a response. We're re- establishing contact. We'll be right back with more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CRIER: Welcome back. I'm continuing my discussion on the anti- smoking movement and attempts to regulate the industry with Senior Editor of Reason Magazine Jacob Sullum and in Los Angeles, Patrick Reynolds who is with the Foundation for a Smoke Free America. Patrick, we lost you there for a few minutes, but I'll bring you up to speed.

We're talking about whether or not patrons in bars can simply go someplace else, that they don't have to go in. And if you choose to work in a bar where smoking is allowed, that is simply a choice you're making and possibly having to suffer the consequences because of capitalism and the right for free enterprise to do what it wants.

REYNOLDS: Well, I think that that argument falls flat when you think about a teenager who wants to go to this one hot club, and the fact that they allow smoking there isn't going to stop him or her from going there. Moreover, when a person needs a job and they want a job, say, to work as a flight attendant or to work as a waiter or a bartender, they're not going to not take the job because they allow smoking there.

I mean, this argument falls flat on its face. Second hand smoke kills. Banning it 100 percent is the way of the future. And I want to point out that something very interesting now is going on. The tobacco industry has mounted a multi-million dollar effort to create a public relations campaign against this ban in California.

CRIER: You're talking about the National Smokers Alliance.

REYNOLDS: Yes. Well, that's part of it. They've also paid millions to Burston-Marsteller, a public relations firm, to try and create shows in which this is called into question - the second hand smoke issue and so on. And I know our guest wasn't put on by Burston-Marsteller. But the point is that they are really aggressively plowing the legislature with dollars, campaign contributions and that comes into really the key area as I see it.

The tobacco industry today is the largest special interest in the nation. They give more money than any other special interest. Last year in 1997.

CRIER: OK, well, now let me interrupt because we're going to run out of time. We're trying to debate the issue here. Yes, they fund the National Smokers Alliance. Yes, of course, we know the tobacco industry pays quite a bit to lobbyists who campaign politicians. And we can track whether or not votes can be correlated with payments to particular politicians.

REYNOLDS: They can. They can. The more money that the tobacco industry gives a politician, the more likely they are to vote with the tobacco companies' point of view, several times more likely. That's why Congress has been so inactive in regulating it.

CRIER: Great. Now let me turn back to the issue we're talking about, particularly ban in public places like bars and night clubs. Jacob, years ago when I was still practicing law and I started looking at reports on second hand smoke, I said to myself pretty soon they're either going to have to ban these in restaurants or owners are going to have to understand that they may have liability. Once they knew or should have known that these reports are indicating people could get sick, there is a personal liability question just like a bartender who sells a guy too many drinks who goes out and runs somebody down. There can be liability. Shouldn't this law actually then protect restaurant owners, night club owners?

SULLUM: Well, three responses. First of all, to suggest that casual exposure to second hand smoke of the kind that you might get by going into a bar or restaurant is going to shorten your life span or endanger your life in any way is absurd.

CRIER: This is for the workers much more than - this is workers.

REYNOLDS: That's wrong. There's no safe limit of second hand smoke. There's no safe limit to it, sir.

SULLUM: As you well know, you cannot establish a safe limit for anything by definition. But the point is that the only - the evidence that the EPA reviewed, for example, in its report had to do with people exposed over the long term for decades living with smokers. And they found a trivial increase in risk over a person's life span for lung cancer.

REYNOLDS: Not such a trivial increase. There was a very substantial increase.

SULLUM: Not true - 19th percent. Nineteen percent increase in very small risk is a trivial increase.

REYNOLDS: Nineteen percent is trivial?

SULLUM: Yes, it is when you're talking about the risk of lung cancer among non-smokers.

REYNOLDS: Come on, come on.

SULLUM: It's very small to begin with. And so if 19.

REYNOLDS: I want to know if you work for the tobacco companies, and if they pay you any money.

SULLUM: No, they don't. But it's interesting that you would assume anybody who disagrees with you must be getting paid by the tobacco companies.

REYNOLDS: That's ridiculous.

CRIER: OK. We're almost out of time. I want to talk about one more thing. The bar and night club owners have objected in that they say - some of them say they're losing money. Others say, in fact, we're making more money because we have a smoke-free environment. Jacob, there was an Arizona study that showed after the law passed in Arizona, did an 18-month study and that bars and restaurants were not losing money because of the smoking ban. Why are we hearing this as an argument in California?

SULLUM: Well, I think it's actually - it's sort of silly to say let's do a study. I think it should be up to the individual entrepreneur. I mean, he's the one who's in the best position to know whether his customers want this, whether there's a demand.

REYNOLDS: It's not silly to do a study. You know, .

SULLUM: For a smoke-free environment or for people to be allowed to smoke.

REYNOLDS: The UC study environment in San Francisco certainly showed that there was no - it's important to do a study. There's been no decrease in sales tax revenue either in New York or in California in cities that ban smoking 100 percent. And to say there's a.

CRIER: OK. And I'll tell you what, unfortunately I'm going to start talking because we're out of time. We should have saved more time for this. We'll revisit it. Patrick, Jacob, thanks very much.

SULLUM: Thank you.

CRIER: Now up next, we all pay a lot in taxes. But are we getting what we pay for? That report when we return. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Content and Programming Fox News Network, Inc. Transcription Federal Clearing House, Inc., which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon Fox News Network, Inc.'s and Federal Clearing House, Inc.'s s or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.

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News; Domestic

Smokers v. California

Sean Hannity; Alan Colmes
3,691 words
11 March 1998
09:30 pm
Fox News: Hannity & Colmes

Federal Clearing House.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST, HANNITY & COLMES: Welcome back to HANNITY & COLMES. I'm Sean Hannity.

Are smokers on a government hit list? California recently banned indoor smoking in not only restaurants, but bars and casinos as well. Now one bar owner already fined $1,300 for allowing patrons to light up, he's fired up, and he's the first to go to court to challenge this law.

Across the country, in New York, a state assemblyman wants to ban smoking in private automobiles when children are present. He contends this situation amounts to child abuse and is similar to punching a child in the face.

Is this a question of smokers' rights or the right to be free of smoking? And we're joined from Los Angeles by Michael Warder. He's the vice president of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy.

And also joining us from Los Angeles, Patrick Reynolds from the group www.tobaccofree.org. Sounds like Ross Perot. He's also the grandson of R.J. Reynolds, the founder of the world's third largest tobacco manufacturer.

Gentlemen, thank you for being with us. Patrick, welcome back to the program. Patrick, is this not the worst case of government intrusion? If you have a private bar or restaurant owner and he wants to allow smoking, and people want to work there, and people want to freely come in and smoke, we're not altering their consciousness here. Why would you allow the government or want the government to step in and prevent that?

REYNOLDS: What about the choice of non-smokers to breathe air that isn't going to give them disease?

WARDER: That would be just fine in a smoke-free restaurant. In a smoke-free restaurant, he could go to that restaurant and patronize it. But the person who, after work, would like to have a beer and smoke a cigarette, he could go to a bar where he's allowed to do that. What's the harm in that?

REYNOLDS: I think that, you know, this is really a spin and a con job on the part of the tobacco industry and their spin doctors. This isn't a freedoms issue. This is a health issue here.

HANNITY: We'll take a break right there.

REYNOLDS: And what about the rights of the employees to not get sick and spend - they're going to come back and sue the employer. And the employers are being conned here.

HANNITY: Hang on, Patrick. Also, what do you think? Give us a call. It's toll-free, 1-888-TELL-FOX, as we continue on HANNITY & COLMES. Thanks for being with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLMES: Welcome back to HANNITY & COLMES. I'm Alan Colmes. Do you have a right to smoke, or do I have a right to clean air? California's tough new anti-smoking law gets its first legal challenge this week. It's the first step in what could be a long legal battle over whether the state can ban smoking in restaurants, bars and casinos.

We're talking to Michael Warder, vice president of the Claremont Institute, and Patrick Reynolds from the group www.tobaccofree.org. Mr. Warder, passive cigarette smoke has been shown to have a 20 percent increase in hardening of the arteries of those exposed to passive cigarette smoke than those who aren't.

Now when we talk about whether we should have restaurants that are totally smoke free and some that totally, you know, allow smoke, to give people a choice, what about the rights of those restaurant workers...

REYNOLDS: Yes.

COLMES: ... who have to work in a smoke-free environment, Mr. Warder, who may not have that choice if they're working in a restaurant that has smoke all over the place?

WARDER: Glad you asked about the rights of the workers. About 20 to 25 percent of those workers smoke cigarettes. So right now, they have...

COLMES: What about the 75 percent that don't?

WARDER: Excuse me, I'm sorry, I was just trying to respond to your question. About 25 percent of the workers do smoke. So I would think that those smokers who work would probably work in taverns and restaurants that allow a smoke - people to come there who frequent it, who do smoke.

And those who have such an abhorrence to smoking, they would work in smoke-free bars and taverns. It seems to me like a very easy, equitable solution...

REYNOLDS: I would completely -- I think that's a lot of nonsense. I mean, if someone goes...

WARDER: ... compared to what we have right now, where we have police -excuse me - where we have police coming into bars arresting people. That's ridiculous. They ought to be arresting people who steal things and murder people.

COLMES: Patrick?

REYNOLDS: It's time that law enforcement started to enforce some of the laws out there to protect the health of non-smokers, especially to stop merchants from selling to children. That's where we really need sting operations and enforcement.

A little regulation can go a long way to keep our kids off cigarettes and to keep non-smokers safe from second-hand smoke.

HANNITY: Patrick, this bar owner now is facing a $1,300 fine because he allowed people to smoke in his establishment. Are we now going to go into bars and arrest owners if they allow patrons to smoke? Is that how you want us to our limited police resources, Patrick?

REYNOLDS: Well, Sean, I wouldn't, you know, arrest them. But I think citing them and fining them, and by the third time...

HANNITY: Thirteen-hundred dollars?

REYNOLDS: ... he should lose his license to do business, yes.

HANNITY: Well, you know something, 70 percent of the people in California in a recent poll that I read, they don't want to go into restaurants where there's smoking. So certainly there's an opportunity for people that don't like smoke-filled restaurants and bars, they can go start their own establishments.

But other people that like cigar smoking or like cigarette smoking, if they want to go to a bar where they all that, they ought to be allowed the freedom to do that. And I can't believe you're going to deny them the opportunity to do that.

REYNOLDS: Well, I think that the area - the problem comes when someone goes to apply for a job and they're hungry and they need a job, and they're...

HANNITY: They can go work in one of these other bars. You don't have to work anywhere, Patrick.

(CROSS-TALK)

WARDER: Twenty to 25 percent of those people...

REYNOLDS: Sean, that's not the way it works. That's not realistic. And you know, a restaurant owner had to pay $75,000 to cover the cost of a heart attack from a non-smoker who worked in his restaurant. The guy was a vegetarian. He had no history of heart disease in his family. He jogged every day.

(CROSS-TALK)

WARDER: I haven't heard anybody raise a down side as to the solution that I propose, that there could be some bars that are smoke-free and that some bars that tolerate smoking. And as far as the workers go, there are workers who prefer to be in a smoke-free environment, could work in those bars.

The workers who smoke, and there's 20 to 25 percent of those workers, they could work in such bars and restaurants. What is the down side? I haven't heard anybody say what the downside is.

REYNOLDS: Let me tell you what the down side is.

WARDER: Good, go ahead.

REYNOLDS: Say you have a very fashionable club, and you got a hot club where young people want to go to that club. That club happens to allow smoking. You got R.J. Reynolds...

WARDER: That's right...

REYNOLDS: ... paying club owners a lot of money to have camels - cool-looking camels, silhouettes of camels with neat colors around him...

HANNITY: It's not going to happen anymore, Patrick. You know that that's true. You know that's part of this settlement, that they're not going to target towards young people anymore. So that's not an issue anymore.

REYNOLDS: My understand is that Reynolds has placing these camel images in bars and nightclubs. And you know, they're after the young people's dough.

WARDER: Well, what about all these ridiculous - excuse me, what about all these ridiculous ads we have to tolerate that are generated by the tax dollars that smokers pay, advising all the citizens in America never to smoke? Why do we have to tolerate these stupid ads generated through government purposes (sic)?

REYNOLDS: Why do we have to tolerate tobacco ads that have glamorized smoking for decades after decade after decade. I mean, this is ridiculous. And I'm angry about it, and I'm outraged that tobacco industry has gotten away with spending $4.5 billion a year on advertising its deadly products.

COLMES: All right, let...

WARDER: What I would like to see is out government to simply act as an agent...

COLMES: All right, gentlemen, hold on, we've got to get to our viewers.

Hold on just a moment. Let's go to Alan in New York. Let's get everybody in here. Alan, you're on HANNITY & COLMES. Hi.

CALLER: Good evening.

COLMES: Go ahead, sir.

CALLER: First of all, Sean, I love you.

HANNITY: Thanks, Alan.

CALLER: OK, yesterday...

COLMES: What am I, chopped liver?

(LAUGHTER)

Go ahead, Alan.

CALLER: Yesterday on your program, you had Ivan Lafayette (ph), an assemblyman from New York.

HANNITY: Yes.

CALLER: And he's the gentleman who said that grown-ups smoking...

HANNITY: He's talking about a radio program I do in New York. Right.

CALLER: Right. The best program on.

HANNITY: Thanks.

CALLER: Anyhow, Ivan Lafayette said that an adult smoking in a car is the equivalent of punching a kid in the face.

HANNITY: We were going to bring that up. You're - yes...

(CROSS-TALK)

WARDER: That's just great. Then we can have government intervening in family life even more than it already...

HANNITY: Hang on, Alan, finish your call.

REYNOLDS: What about the corporations that are...

(CROSS-TALK)

HANNITY: Hang on, Alan - let Alan finish his point.

REYNOLDS: Is this a Johnny-One-Note thing or what?

HANNITY: Hang on, gentlemen. Alan, is in New York. Go ahead, Alan, go ahead.

CALLER: Listen to me. Folks, I personally hate smoking. But I support a person's right to do what they want to themselves. Going back to Mr. Lafayette, my point is this. I suggest he is a phony, like Mr. Reynolds, because if Mr. Lafayette really wants to protect our children, he would introduce a bill that prohibits pregnant women from smoking.

COLMES: Well, that's one way of going about it. But you were just called a phony, Patrick Reynolds. Maybe you'd like to respond to that. The fact of the matter is, when a child's in a locked car, and there's cigarette smoke, we've seen the statistics in terms of what passive smoke does to anybody. Especially children, whose lungs may not be fully developed.

WARDER: So you'd have the government intervene?

COLMES: That was directed to Mr. Reynolds, where the caller made a comment about him being a phony. So Patrick, perhaps you want to respond.

REYNOLDS: I do. I watched my father, R.J. Reynolds, die from smoking when I was 15. I saw my brother, R.J. Reynolds III, die from smoking in 1994. I care deeply about this issue. Nothing phony about it. I've given over half of my inheritance to fight this deadly thing, smoking cigarettes. And I'll continue to do this the rest of my life.

HANNITY: Mr. Warder, I want to go to you...

WARDER: Well, I'm very sorry. Really, I'm very sorry about the death of his father. But you know, the sad fact is, we're all going to die in some shape or form. My father has smoked cigars all his life, and he's 87. My mom has smoked cigarettes, and she's 81.

The fact is, why somebody dies, it's very difficult to attribute to one cause. You would think that if you stopped smoking, you could live forever. And that's simply not going to happen.

REYNOLDS: You have a 40 percent chance of dying from smoking if you smoke. That's like having two bullets in a gun with five chambers.

WARDER: But we have to admit that some people smoke and they don't get cancer. And other people don't smoke and they do get cancer.

REYNOLDS: Forty percent of the people who smoke die from smoking, OK? And one out three people around the world smoke, and we're going to see 9 percent of the entire world population die because of cigarettes. That's reality.

COLMES: All right, we're going to wrap it up in just a moment when we come back on HANNITY & COLMES. Please stay with us on Fox News.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Welcome back to HANNITY & COLMES. Right back to our phones. Scott in Oregon, thank you for calling. Go ahead, sir.

CALLER: Hey, thanks a lot. This is my first time I'm calling. Never watched the show, but I'm really enjoying the debates.

COLMES: Thank you, sir. What's your point?

CALLER: My comment is I have asthma. And I go into a restaurant or a bar and people are smoking, I feel like it infringes on my right just to breathe clean air. Not only in restaurants and bars, but when you go walk into a building, you usually have to go through a wall of smoke just to get in anyway. And I feel like it takes away from my right to breathe that clean...

COLMES: Excellent point, Scott. Mr. Warder, would you please address that?

WARDER: That's why I would have two kinds - I would have a smoke-free bar and I would have a bar where smokers are welcome. And that way a person with asthma could go and enjoy the environment he likes to enjoy.

But why should he inflict smoke-free environments on people who would prefer to smoke?

COLMES: Well, you know, all bars are not created equal. What about, as Patrick mentioned, the new hot bar all the kids go to it. But they can't go to this one...

WARDER: What new hot bar? What are we talking about here? We're talking about smoke-free...

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