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In a clear victory for public health, a federal judge in Kentucky today rejected a motion by tobacco companies to block key provisions of the new law giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to regulate tobacco products. Specifically, today's decision strongly supports the government's authority to prevent the industry from making health claims about its products without FDA approval.
We applaud the federal court's decision to quickly and decisively reject the latest attempt by Big Tobacco to frustrate the intent of the new FDA law and allow the agency to get on with its role in putting an end to deceptive and dangerous tobacco marketing.
Eleven public health and consumer advocacy groups joined in the legal effort to thwart the industry's challenge to the law based on the claim that its First Amendment rights were violated.
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A new survey conducted by the American Legacy Foundation(R) (Legacy) finds that the majority (63 percent) of sports fans surveyed are current or former smokers and 76 percent of them have smoked while watching or attending sporting events. The study examines whether sports fans were exposed to secondhand smoke while watching sports; smoked while watching sports at certain venues; or whether those who quit smoking relapsed while watching a game. The survey also examined whether watching sports was a trigger for fans who smoke.
The survey also indicated that 60 percent of sports fans have been exposed to secondhand smoke in the past year while watching or attending sporting events and that 36 percent of sports fans who smoke or used to smoke are extremely or very tempted to smoke while viewing sporting events in their own homes. When the score of the game is close, nearly one third are extremely or very tempted to light up.
Starting this week and through the winter, many smokers will be exposed to new quit smoking messages through the EX(R) national smoking cessation campaign. Legacy, along with the National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation (NATC), announced today that the next round of new ads in its two-year old EX campaign are now being featured during FOX Sports' broadcast of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series (ALCS) and World Series.
The American Legacy Foundation®'s Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy this week received a $977,346 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Institute will use the funds to study the effectiveness of Internet-based mobile phone support for the D.C. Tobacco Quitline.
"The competition for these awards is fierce, with only about two percent of all applications receiving funding," said Dr. David Abrams, Executive Director of the Schroeder Institute. "This award helps to fulfill the mission of the Schroeder Institute to translate our research discoveries into effective interventions to improve individual and community health."
Today in Columbus, Ohio, Judge David Fais of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas permanently enjoined the State from dissolving the endowment of the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation (OTPF). This decision is a major step forward in the effort spearheaded by the American Legacy Foundation's to safeguard the state's tobacco prevention money for its intended purpose: to save Ohioans' lives. Two Ohioans were also plaintiffs in the case: Robert Miller and David Weinmann, both longtime smokers who relied on services and programs supported by the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation to quit smoking, brought claims on behalf of the intended beneficiaries of OTPF - Ohio smokers.
The American Legacy Foundation is a rare example of a public charity being born with a silver spoon. Even before it began operating in 1999, the foundation was bequeathed more than $1 billion from the settlement of a massive lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of 46 states against the country's major tobacco companies. . . .
For the first few years, it seemed a great success. The foundation rolled out hard-hitting and ubiquitous advertising, known as "the truth" campaign. . . .
Then the magic stopped working so well. Since 2003, teen smoking rates have hovered around 22 percent, even as adult smoking has continued to dwindle (to under 20 percent now). After the final really big tobacco payment of $307.9 million came that year (under the Master Settlement), "the truth" campaign continued on a much smaller scale.
But despite spending less on those ads, awarding fewer grants for anti-smoking programs and seeing all the tobacco company contributions end last year, the foundation itself grew wealthier. As expenditures for its primary missions fell, two budget items kept growing: investment fees and salary costs, especially for top executives. . . .
While most nonprofits invest to protect their funds, the Legacy Foundation has pursued an aggressive investment strategy that includes hedge funds, foreign stocks (sometimes accompanied by currency exchange losses), interest rate swaps, two office buildings in downtown Washington and other investments.
Some observers say Legacy is trying too hard to perpetuate itself and the cause would be better served if it spent more of its endowment, which stood at $1.156 billion at the end of fiscal 2008.
The American Legacy Foundation says President Cheryl Healton's salary of $570,000 in 2008 (plus benefits) is about the same as the median for others in large philanthropic endeavors. . . .
(For a more complete rundown of the foundation's annual budget and spending, see the pie charts on these pages.) . . .
The foundation is phasing out its grant program for small innovative programs, for anti-smoking programs in rural areas and among minority groups, and for research. It has spent about $150 million on these grants during its existence.
As for media strategies: Despite embracing social media such as Facebook and YouTube, the ubiquity of the foundation's ads has faded. None has gone viral on the Web. The foundation has attracted fewer than 200 Facebook fans.
Meanwhile, tobacco companies lay out about $41 million a day for advertising.
Today the American Legacy Foundation(R) (Legacy) urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prohibit menthol in cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products as one of its first priorities related to the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (the Act).
Legacy highlighted menthol as a top priority, indicating that menthol products account for one-fifth of the U.S. cigarette market and highlighting that approximately 80 percent of African-American smokers smoke menthol cigarettes.
Legacy's comments submitted to the FDA today as part of the agency's request for public input related to the Act on the topic of menthol states: The success of menthol cigarettes is hardly an accident.
The act required the FDA to create a Tobacco Products Advisory Committee, which will submit reports on such questions as "the impact of the use of menthol in cigarettes on the public health."
Although teen smoking overall has declined, the proportion who smoke menthol cigarettes is rising -- 17.5% from 2000 to 2002, according to the American Legacy Foundation, created as a result of the 1998 settlement between state attorneys general and the tobacco industry. About 44% of smokers ages 12 to 17 use menthol cigarettes, the foundation says.
"It makes no sense" to keep menthol cigarettes on the market, says Legacy CEO Cheryl Healton.
A 2002 study found 60% of middle school smokers smoked menthol, says scientist James Hersey with RTI International, an independent research institute in Washington, D.C. "I think menthol is easier to smoke, so kids will often start with menthol."
Legacy's comments submitted to the FDA today as part of the agency's request for public input related to the Act on the topic of menthol states: The success of menthol cigarettes is hardly an accident. Literally many hundreds of tobacco industry documents conclusively establish that the tobacco industry has for decades systematically developed and marketed menthol products to attract and keep as long-term customers millions of "starter" and youth smokers; racial minorities and African-Americans in particular; and smokers seeking health reassurances. One study demonstrated a 17.5 percent increase in youth menthol cigarette use between 2000 - 2002. Despite a 22 percent decline in overall packs of cigarettes sold in the United States between 2000 and 2005, menthol sales remained stable.
The American Legacy Foundation(R) applauds Speaker Nancy Pelosi and all those in the U.S. House of Representatives who have worked tirelessly to protect Capitol Hill staff and visitors from the dangers of second-hand smoke.
On Thursday, the House's last two indoor smoking rooms are being cleaned and converted to smoke-free dining areas. It is no secret that secondhand smoke is dangerous - it causes 50,000 deaths per year in the U.S. Our halls of government should be playing a leadership role in ensuring clean indoor air for their staff and the visiting public and setting a positive example for other work places and public spaces nationwide. . . .
The closing of the smoking rooms in the Longworth and Cannon House office buildings is one more indication that we're moving in the right direction and toward a smoke-free America.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy was a towering figure in the United States Senate for more than 40 years, fighting for many important issues, but top among them were public health and social justice.
Senator Kennedy fully understood the public health epidemic of tobacco use and fought at every opportunity to protect Americans from this devastating epidemic, which is the nation's number-one preventable cause of death.
Despite his own health struggles this year, Senator Kennedy shepherded the Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act through the United States Senate, which after nearly a decade of work, gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco. His commitment to advancing this legislation was unyielding, even as he battled cancer himself.
Senator Kennedy was also instrumental in the passage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. This historic piece of legislation, which increased the federal tobacco tax, will have direct life saving benefits, since as the price of cigarettes increases, the number of smokers decreases.
Smoking bans, while a necessary and positive trend for reducing exposure to secondhand smoke, have some unintended consequences--especially for women. The August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine includes a special supplement, Unintended Consequences of Tobacco Policies, a compilation of nine original, peer-reviewed articles focused on examining these unique challenges related to a smoking stigma, childcare and personal safety.
According to the report, low-income women who live in urban areas may have safety concerns about going outside to smoke when smoking indoors isn't permitted. Moreover, childcare and adequate child supervision may be a concern when they go outside their homes in order to avoid exposing their children to secondhand smoke. The reports go on to find that many women of low socio-economic status feel an increased stigma associated with smoking, more so than their more advantaged counterparts. This stigma often leaves mothers in this category with a label of being "bad mothers" and thus, cause additional unintended consequences including resistance to seeking out help in quitting from healthcare providers.
"Women of low socio-economic status have elevated challenges across-the-board when it comes to smoking and access to quit-smoking resources," said Dr. Pebbles Fagan, Health Scientist, Tobacco Research Branch, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute. "Unfortunately, the articles in this issue find that this group also faces a unique set of consequences related to the evolving policy context of smoking worldwide."
The American Legacy Foundation(R), the National Cancer Institute and the National Cancer Institute's Office of Science Planning and Assessment co-sponsored the supplement.
The American Legacy Foundation(R), the National Cancer Institute and the National Cancer Institute's Office of Science Planning and Assessment co-sponsored the supplement. . . .
Remedies in the supplement's forward are proposed for practitioners to help reduce the unintended burden on the population groups outlined:
-- Ensure that secondhand smoke-related messages target PARENTS, not just mothers, and are delivered in culturally appropriate ways
-- Focus smoking-cessation messages to an individual woman's health, as well as the health of her children and family
-- Build acceptance and trust within the patient-provider relationship to facilitate treatment initiation among women and mothers who smoke
Amanda Crawford was just fifteen when she smoked her first cigarette. Now that she is 45, she still smokes despite having tried to quit multiple times. Children are fifty percent more likely to start smoking if they have a parent who smokes - and in Crawford's case, it was her father who smoked. Born and raised in Virginia, she met and married her husband - also a smoker - in Roanoke. The Crawfords now have three sons - 28, 14 and 11. "Our 28-year old started smoking when he turned 18 and our 14-year old is already sneaking cigarettes. My father quit smoking later in his life, but I'm concerned about how smoking will affect the health of our entire family," she said.
She is not alone. As caregivers across the country mobilize for Sandwich Generation Month in July, the American Legacy Foundation® today released the results of a recent survey analyzing the unique concerns associated with tobacco use and prevention for Americans raising their own kids while simultaneously caring for their aging parents - millions of whom have been life-long smokers and are now struggling with the resulting health effects. Lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, can all afflict aging smokers and can be emotionally and financially debilitating for families forced to cope with them.
The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, found that 75 percent of respondents with a parent who is a current or former smoker are concerned about their aging parent's current or past smoking or their diagnosis of having a tobacco-related disease. Thirty-four percent of respondents with teenage or adult children indicated that they were concerned about their child's current or potential smoking. About 5% of respondents were "sandwiched" in between: struggling with issues related to both their parents and children smoking. Nationwide, this small percentage translates to more than 10 million Americans in this situation.
The survey highlights the unique position of this group of Americans
This decision overwhelmingly affirms findings of liability and remedies by the lower court - findings that are especially damning for the tobacco industry. However, we regret that the Court upheld the lower court decision that the remedies available under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) were limited and cannot be forward looking. The Foundation hopes that the Department of Justice will continue its strong advocacy on behalf of the victims of this massive fraud, as well as future victims of tobacco addiction and disease.
As this case moves forward, possibly to the Supreme Court, the Foundation supports both the government and our public health colleagues who argued for the efficacy and long-term health benefits derived from funding effective counter marketing programs to address youth smoking prevention and adult smoking cessation. These advocates intervened on behalf of the American public to assert that these remedies could save countless lives by funding effective programs to keep teens from starting to smoke, limit the effects of secondhand smoke and provide critical tools to help tobacco-addicted adults quit.
"With this decision, decades of deceptive marketing practices leading to massive disease and death have finally come home to roost for the tobacco industry," said American Legacy Foundation President & CEO Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH. "More than 400,000 Americans lose their lives to tobacco-related diseases each year."
Healton, who testified in the lower court proceedings, added that "research has consistently shown that for every dollar spent on prevention and cessation programs, lives are saved."
As caregivers across the country mobilize for Sandwich Generation Month in July, the American Legacy Foundation(R) today released the results of a recent survey analyzing the unique concerns associated with tobacco use and prevention for Americans raising their own kids while simultaneously caring for their aging parents - millions of whom have been life-long smokers and are now struggling with the resulting health effects. Lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, can all afflict aging smokers and can be emotionally and financially debilitating for families forced to cope with them.
The survey highlights the unique position of this group of Americans and their concerns about the impact of the nation's number-one preventable cause of death on their emotional and financial well-being. . . .
"As healthcare reform and the economy dominate our headlines, we simply cannot ignore the burden of smoking on the health of America's families," said Cheryl G. Healton