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Smoke-Free News Page  

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    This section of our web page gives you the latest news and announcements that involve anti-smoking and smoke-free organizations.  Any victories for anti-smoking in the government will be announced here.  This page is updated at least once a month!   

News

News

You and I are on practically the same wavelength. . . I can't understand why the public health people are not carrying the carrot out further in front of the horse. They should be setting up a gold standard so that when that is compromised, as it will be, it might not fall any lower than the President's proposal.

• 12/11/97 Tobacco Industry Courts Hill with Compromise, Conciliation [Undated] Congressional Quarterly
Big Tobacco will move to center stage on Capitol Hill in 1998, embarking on a tailored strategy to end the "Great War" over smoking. As tobacco pushes for congressional approval of a landmark legal settlement that is favorable for the industry, it has taken a series of steps to win support. It has converted former enemies like state attorneys general and the American Medical Association into allies. . . The AMA, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, among others, have formed a coalition called ENACT -- Effective National Action to Control Tobacco -- to push comprehensive tobacco-control legislation.
• 12/11/97 Tobacco Wars Head to Final Battlefield Christian Science Monitor
Congressional hearings this week have made clear that the tobacco deal negotiated last spring between the states and the Big Four cigarette companies will be one of the most controversial issues Congress takes up next year.
• 12/11/97 Taft-Hartley Funds Laud AMA Opposition To Big Tobacco Quest for Lawsuit Immunity PR Newswire
The Coalition for Workers' Health Care Funds today issued a message of congratulations to the American Medical Association for its overwhelming vote in opposition to the tobacco industry's quest for immunity from civil lawsuits.
• 12/11/97 ENACT Group Releases Poll on Special Immunity for Tobacco Industry: Wording of Question Makes Results Contrary to Impartial Polls and AMA Vote. ASH PR Newswire
In the wake of a determination by one of its most powerful members -- the American Medical Association -- to oppose any legal immunity for the tobacco industry, the ENACT group is releasing a poll allegedly showing that a majority of the public does support it. However, because of the wording of the question, the results are different from several independent polls and misleading. . . A much larger and growing coalition of antismoking, public health, medical, civic and other organizations known collectively as SAVE LIVES, NOT TOBACCO is seeking national legislation now which does not grant any immunity to the tobacco industry.
• 12/10/97 Coalition for Workers' Health Care Funds Asks: Who is ENACT and Why is It Trying to Prevent Tobacco Victims from Suing the Tobacco Industry for Damages? PR Newswire
The forthcoming release of a badly slanted public opinion poll by ENACT demonstrates clearly that group's dedication to helping the tobacco industry achieve its goal of immunity from lawsuits. This was the message delivered today to the union members and trustees of some 500 workers' health care funds around the country by Coalition for Workers' Health Care Funds Executive Committee Chairman Robert J. Connerton. . . Connerton pointed out that other, legitimate, polls such as one conducted recently by the Associated Press and Business Week, show the American public in favor of allowing tobacco victims to sue.
• 12/09/97 AMA Rejects Idea of Immunity for Tobacco Industry Reuters
Delegates at the AMA's policy-making meeting in Dallas reaffirmed their opposition to civil immunity for the tobacco industry and rejected proposals that it be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations. "The AMA remains opposed to any form of civil immunity for the tobacco industry and remains opposed to giving the tobacco industry any other special legal advantages that would abridge the rights of individuals or groups of individuals who have been harmed by this industry," the delegates said in a resolution.
House JUDICIARY Committee Hearing on attorney fees and the proposed national tobacco settlement. December 10, 1997
• Tentative Witness List
• Testimony Of Congressman Scott Mcinnis
• Testimony by the Honorable Paul McHale
• Statement Of D. Scott Wise, Esq. Davis Polk & Wardwell
• Summary Of Statement Of Lester Brickman Professor of Law Cardozo School of Law
• Summary Of Testimony Of Alan B. Morrison
• Testimony Of Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore
• Prepared Statement Of C. Steven Yerrid, Esquire
• Jeffrey E. Harris ["Not Found" See FNS version]
• FTP: Hr 2740 To Limit Attorneys' Fees In The Tobacco Settlement In the House of Representatives, October 24, lg97. Introduced by Mr. Mclnnis (for himself, Mr Cox of California, and M r. McHale)
• 12/11/97 House Hearing Sizes Up Tobacco Suit Legal Fees Washington Post
Attorneys battling the tobacco industry could earn as much as $18 billion in fees, if all the state contracts with lawyers were carried out to the letter, according to a law professor who testified yesterday before an influential House panel. While states suing the industry insist that will never happen, those astronomical figures set the tone for the hearing at which both Republicans and Democrats criticized the fees lawyers might receive.
• 12/11/97 HOUSE Republicans Attack Attorneys who Stand to Profit on Tobacco Deals The Wall Street Journal (pay registration)
• 12/11/97 Congress Wrestles with Lawyers' Fees in Tobacco Deal USA Today
Lawyers who have sued the tobacco industry on behalf of states stand to collect fees of between $7.9 billion and $18.6 billion, legal scholars told a congressional panel Wednesday. The estimates came as the House Judiciary Committee began debating how much is too much to pay the lawyers. In Florida, some of the lawyers hired by the state are seeking fees that would work out to more than $7,700 an hour. If the proposed national tobacco settlement is enacted, "some of these lawyers will become instant billionaires," said Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., co-sponsor of a bill that would cap lawyers fees at $150 an hour in the tobacco cases.
• 12/11/97 Hearing Opens on Legal Fee Cap Dallas Morning News
Mr. Moore said his private attorneys used their own money to support his suit and deserve compensation for the risk. "What we were up against was an industry which paid their lawyers $600 million a year to defend ongoing litigation," he said. "They had never lost a case or paid out a penny to anyone."
• 12/11/97 Fees in Tobacco Accord Debated Winston-Salem Journal
The Association of Trial Lawyers of America distanced itself yesterday from some of the Florida attorneys, hoping to keep Congress from enacting a cap. Citing the resources and expertise that trial lawyers contributed to the lawsuits, Miguel 

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• Cigarette Seduction: Deconstructing its Siren Appeal to Teen Smokers 2 CompuServe Public Health Forum Conferences featuring marketing analyst Alan Brody
• The Collaborators Who's collaborating with the tobacco industry? The answers may surprise you. A database in progress.
• The Resistors Who is standing up? Many more than appear in this list. We commend them all, but these face special temptations. A database in progress.
• Outdated alerts & other time-expired items. An unorganized text dump for completionists only--or those looking for specific old TV programs, magazine references, etc. 
• A few of Our Losses . . .

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