WASHINGTON, D.C. -- October 15, 2012 -- U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler heard oral arguments today from public health intervenors in the Department of Justice (DOJ) case against the tobacco industry regarding corrective statements that tobacco companies must make to explain their decades of dishonesty.
The hearing enabled the public health community to emphasize the importance of strong corrective statements that reflect the tobacco industry's repeated efforts to deceive the public about the dangers of its products. The DOJ and public health intervenors submitted recommendations in February 2011 with strong statements such as We manipulated cigarettes to make them more addictive. The tobacco industry argued that the corrective statements should simply mirror the textual warnings required under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, a 2009 law giving the Food and Drug Administration authority over all tobacco products, such as WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive.
Big Tobacco is guilty of knowingly and willfully deceiving the American public about the hazards of its products, and the corrective statements should reflect that fact, said John R. Seffrin, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). Meaningful corrective statements are an important part of the effort to force Big Tobacco to set the record straight with the American people.
The corrective statements stem from Judge Kessler's historic 2006 decision, which found the major cigarette manufacturers guilty of violating civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The decision was based on powerful evidence that the industry was well aware that smoking and nicotine are addictive, and that it engaged in manipulative marketing practices to deceive the public into thinking that its products were not deadly. The final statements, which will appear in national broadcast and print advertisements, are required to address issues including the negative health effects of smoking, including secondhand smoke, the addictive nature of smoking and the lack of health benefit from smoking cigarettes that claim to be "low tar," "light" and "mild.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently reiterated the importance of corrective statements because the tobacco industry is likely to commit similar offenses in the future.
We support strong, evidence-based statements, like those put forth today, which educate the public on the dangers of tobacco use and secondhand smoke and force Big Tobacco to clearly admit its years of wrongdoing, Seffrin said. Big Tobacco has thrived for too long on the business of addiction by marketing to children and misleading adults about the harms of its deadly products, which kill nearly 440,000 people in America each year.
The American Cancer Society and five other public health groups -- Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund and National African American Tobacco Prevention Network -- are intervenors in the federal case, which was filed by DOJ 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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