WASHINGTON, D.C. -- July 27, 2012 -- In a victory for public health, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today affirmed that the tobacco industry must be held accountable for ædecades of lying and deceiving the American public.
The court rejected the tobacco industry's argument that the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act negates the need for industry to account for past offenses violating federal racketeering laws. The Tobacco Control Act, which passed in 2009, gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products. The court ruled that the trial court judge had legitimately concluded that Big Tobacco is just as likely to commit similar offenses in the future.
Today's decision by the Court of Appeals upholds the decision issued by U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler, who in 2006 found the major cigarette manufacturers guilty of violating civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) based on powerful evidence that the industry was well aware that smoking and nicotine are addictive and engaged in manipulative marketing practices to deceive the public into thinking that its products were not deadly.
The American Cancer Society and five other public health groups -- the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights and National African American Tobacco Prevention Network -- are intervenors in this federal case, which was filed by the Department of Justice in 1999 to hold Big Tobacco accountable for more than 50 years of fraudulent and deceptive marketing practices.
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more information, visit www.fightcancer.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Lauren Walens or Steven Weiss
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: (202) 661-5763 or (202) 661-5711
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
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