The Tobacco Toll
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“What occurred in 1997 has given our nation a unique opportunity to reduce the number of Americans who die from tobacco.”

 Bill Novelli, Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids

“Joe Camel, R.I.P,”  “U.S. States Settle with Liggett on Tobacco,”  “Tobacco’s Crumbling Barricades.”

Day after day in 1997, the long-simmering tobacco debate erupted onto the front pages of the nation’s newspapers.  But when the tale of this unpredictable and dramatic year is told, it may only be a prologue to the historic tobacco story that is set to be written in 1998.

The potential now exists, according to many public health leaders, to enact legislation that fundamentally changes how tobacco is manufactured, sold, advertised and perceived, shattering the decades-old myth that says the tobacco marketing machine is too powerful to be derailed.

 “Tobacco’s threat to our kids is still as strong as ever,” said Cass Wheeler, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association, “but now an historic opportunity exists to turn the tide on this epidemic.  Just a year ago, we couldn’t have imagined that meaningful congressional action on tobacco would be a possibility in 1998.”

The past year began quietly and rather inauspiciously for tobacco.  In February, the initial phase of the Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco rule went into effect, requiring anyone appearing to be under 27 years old to provide photo identification when purchasing tobacco.

The calm, however, would quickly become a tempest, beginning with a press conference in March.  In a packed Washington hotel room, a group of Attorneys General announced that the Liggett Group tobacco company had agreed to essentially turn states’ evidence against the tobacco industry.  The company admitted what many had suspected for years, and then sent the evidence  hundreds of previously secret tobacco documents  to legal authorities around the nation.

“It was a stunning event, not because of the financial settlement, but because for the first time, a tobacco company admitted that smoking causes cancer, is addictive, and that the industry targets kids in its marketing,” said Matthew Myers, executive vice president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who helped negotiate the agreement.

Around the same time, tobacco took center stage in a federal courtroom in North Carolina, where the FDA’s new tobacco regulations were being challenged.  In a precedent-setting decision, the court ruled that the FDA did have authority over tobacco.

On April 3, the chairmen of the RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris tobacco companies sat down across the table from state Attorneys General, lawyers for tobacco plaintiffs and public health advocates at an Arlington, Virginia hotel.  The tobacco chiefs announced that the industry was prepared to make unprecedented changes in how it did business in order to negotiate a possible solution to the state suits against the industry.  In the tense hours that followed, little was accomplished  but in the following months, progress would accelerate beyond all expectations.

“Word that the tobacco industry was talking about retreat was met with great skepticism in the public health community,” recalled Bill Novelli, president of the Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids.  “But those talks, and the events that built from them, would lead to an opportunity for legislative action that could never have been anticipated.”

One of those events occurred on May 27, when, after years of pressure against tobacco marketing, the Federal Trade Commission charged RJ Reynolds with illegally inducing children to smoke with its Joe Camel advertising.  The company stood by its marketing, but soon thereafter it retired its cartoon icon from the marketplace.

Then, on June 20, after months of talks that began with the Arlington meeting, the year’s most astonishing event occurred.  All major U.S. tobacco companies signed an agreement that would, if enacted into law, for the first time ever, restrict tobacco advertising, put cigarettes and spit tobacco behind the retail counter and out of the reach of children, restrict smoking in public places, launch a national education campaign paid for by the industry and much more.

FDA action, public pressure, and the strain of Medicaid-related lawsuits from 40 states had forced the industry to make concessions that would have been unimaginable

just months before.  In addition to the national agreement, tobacco companies would later sign legal settlements in Mississippi and Florida which included marketing restrictions and will pay billions of dollars to the two states.

With the momentum having shifted away from the tobacco industry, public health forces jumped on the opportunity to raise the bar for a comprehensive tobacco control plan.  Working with former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler and former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop, they pursued a tobacco plan that went beyond the June 20, 1997 agreement in critical ways.

Their efforts culminated on September 17, when President Clinton enunciated five key principles necessary for any tobacco policy, and called upon Congress to pass sweeping legislation to protect kids from tobacco.  Shortly after, many of the nation’s leading public health groups joined ranks to begin the fight for tobacco legislation under the banner of a new coalition called ENACT  Effective National Action to Control Tobacco.

“While remarkable things were happening on tobacco all year, it wasn’t until the President stepped forward that the real opportunity crystallized,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society.  “We then knew that, done right, the enactment into law of a comprehensive tobacco control policy could effectively attack teen smoking in America.”

The momentum on tobacco soon reached Congress, and on November 5, Senator John McCain, along with several colleagues, introduced the first tobacco control bill.  Bills from Senators Ted Kennedy, Orrin Hatch and others soon followed.

Novelli believes that with the tobacco industry feeling the pressure of lawsuits and public anger and the nation facing a rising tide of youth smoking, the events of 1997 have made it imperative for Congress to act.

“Every member of Congress claims to want to protect kids,” Novelli said, “and now the opportunity exists for them to pass legislation that will save lives.  What occurred in 1997 has given our nation a unique opportunity on tobacco, but it is one that will be lost, maybe forever, if Congress fails to take the lead early next year.”