Jump to full article: Tacoma (WA) News Tribune, 2004-04-06
Author: KENNETH P. VOGEL; The News Tribune
Intro: Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop is no longer on the air pitching a statewide indoor smoking ban, but questions linger about the $100,000 advertising campaign.
The questions are part of a wider debate about who's behind the increasingly tense tobacco war in Pierce County and statewide.
Businesses that oppose smoking bans like the one in Pierce County allege that a state group funded mostly by an $8 billion New Jersey foundation is violating state law by failing to report how much it received and spent on its effort to restrict smoking in Washington state.
Anti-smoking advocates fire back that business interests fighting the ban are secretly doing the tobacco industry's bidding. . . .
The Johnson foundation issued the 2002 grant to Washington BREATHE through its SmokeLess States National Tobacco Policy Initiative. The foundation said the grant was for "mobilizing grass-roots advocates for the elimination of secondhand smoke in public places," according to the initiative's Web site.
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