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CHLEBECK: Saying no to tobacco company cash  

The 1998 Minnesota Tobacco Settlement and the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement were hailed as means to regulate tobacco industry advertising and promotion. . . .

Despite these prohibitions, tobacco companies can still promote themselves. One way is charitable giving to nonprofit organizations and community festivals. The tobacco industry regularly uses this type of promotion to build relationships with a community, to legitimize itself, and ultimately to promote tobacco products. Because the tobacco industry's charitable donations also help create positive views of the industry and its deadly products, they can silence community members and groups promoting initiatives like smoke-free air policies and laws that decrease youth access to tobacco and tobacco promotion. . . .

Recently, President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. This law gives the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco, and permits local governments to regulate tobacco advertising and promotion at the local level-something that could not be done before. Although this law opens the door for new tobacco control efforts, it also provides opportunities for the industry to insert itself into communities in an effort to block regulations. The tobacco industry will undoubtedly try to strengthen relationships with local community leaders and nonprofits in order to prevent local advertising restrictions. That is why it is imperative that nonprofits take a stand against linking themselves to the tobacco industry by taking tobacco money.

By adopting a tobacco-free funding policy, an organization states, in writing, that it will not accept any donations from the tobacco industry and, as a result, will not let the tobacco industry use its good name to promote its products or silence the voices promoting important pro-health legislation. Even if an organization does not plan to accept tobacco industry money, a written policy will withstand the test of time. A written policy ensures that an organization, its members, and staff, in spite of turnover, will uphold a stand against participating in tobacco industry self-promotion.

For more information about how your organization can adopt a tobacco-free funding policy, please contact Bernadette Chlebeck, Community Organizer with the Ramsey Tobacco Coalition, at 651-646-3005 or bc@ansrmn.org

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