ST. CLOUD, MINN. – After nearly 20 years of litigation, tobacco companies must now run ads that showcase the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke and the manipulation of their products to create and sustain addiction. These court-ordered ads containing corrective statements will run on television for a year and in newspapers until March 2018. Additionally, the tobacco companies are required to post statements on their websites and cigarette packs several times during a two-year period.
Litigation began in 1999 when the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Philip Morris (now Altria), R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard. In 2006, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the tobacco companies to publish corrective statements after an eight-month civil trial that revealed a conspiracy dating back to the 1950s to hide the harmful effects of smoking. In her ruling, Judge Kessler stated that the tobacco companies deceived the public, suppressed research and destroyed documents to protect their profits. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, ending 11 years of appeals by the tobacco companies.
Having been found to have committed civil fraud and to have violated the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, the cigarette-makers were ordered by the court to issue corrective statements to address this fraud and prevent future harm. The following are corrective statements the tobacco companies are making public:
- Smoking kills 1,200 Americans every day on average.
- More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol combined.
- Smoking is highly addictive. Nicotine is the addictive drug in tobacco.
- Cigarette companies intentionally designed cigarettes with enough nicotine to create and sustain addiction.
- All cigarettes cause cancer, lung disease, heart attacks and premature death including those that are advertised as “lights,” “low tar,” “ultra lights” and “naturals.” There is no safe cigarette.
- Secondhand smoke kills more than 38,000 Americans each year.
- There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
In Minnesota, tobacco companies spend more than $115 million annually on advertising and marketing, much of it targeted to young people. As a result, tobacco use remains a persistent problem. “Whether it’s family, friends, coworkers or neighbors, tobacco leads to more than 6,300 deaths in Minnesota each year,” states Meghan Bown, coordinator with Crave the Change. “It is now the responsibility of the tobacco industry to show how they contributed to an addiction that has impacted us all in so many ways, be it through lives lost or economically.” Smoking costs Minnesota $3.19 billion annually in health care costs. For every pack sold, we lose an estimated $19.16 in health costs and productivity loss.
Crave the Change is an initiative of CentraCare Health that seeks to create healthy, tobacco-free communities for the next generation. To get involved or learn more, visit cravethechange.org.
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