Tobacco Documents Online

: ,.s.;., . - - ~ The NatiOn".s?'. Ilea~ May-June 1ig8'5 , "''A* (Amer. P;ubiic l+leau_~7 llssn,. I ,. . .. , ~'vb~aeco uompany'~s--~ * ~_ ' y ?.,. , F . i oal ,er Pr ucts ~ :: Sayiing cigarette advertisers are the r~d'ents carrying the modern plague that is wiping out one -fiifth' of' the I ~ population, William Foege, MD, , MPH, former head of the Centers for Disease Controi„' recently urged publ'ic~~ health workers~~ to~: lead'~ a boy-,~'~ cott of the non-'toliacco products of'a1 selected tobacco,"¢ompany,, "perhaps the'I~. J, Reynolds Tobacco company ": R' In a speech before the' "Prevention '85' ' conference held in Atlanta, Foege said that while such, an effort . has been suggested before; perhaps the various public health groups - ' could finally support' an effective " action pushing one company to stop " advertising tobaccoi anywhere in, the world. `,, z Foege, one of the architec£s ot' the' campaign that eradicatedi smallpox : worldwide, headed CDC for six years and, stepped dbvNn in 1983' to _carry . -William Fbege ` . "...._., ::...-~.. .. , ._ ._.._.. .: . ...`..,;._,.. out international health projects at ~6C the agency: p. ._ " ~e' CQin4... ~ thLS 3 . r.. 2 .s :. He is also president elect of API'IA.-t''' CO']rJl lL b ColJ2 an Noting that tobacco companies sell ~ , ,. , ., ~. . .~ : . , p._ . ~z.~ ,; many popular non-tobacco products, unt1lZf1e have Qln Foege said that' the.campaign could' , , target one company, publiicize their ; 1T~1~e'rT~Lt~UirZ(Zl products and "simply ask people to: agreement that no : fi1nd'al'ternate productis,'_'. , Morton A. Madoff, MD„Paofessort~f tob'~CO IUZ'll be Community Health at the Tufts Uni crd,'vertised...... _ _ versity of Scheol' of Medicine, also suggested a boycott of tobacco, compa_., nies'.non-tobaccol products in a com- mentary in the Febru'ary issue of Tfze Nation's Health: _ The idea has arisen in lieu of a total boycott of tobacco, companies, since as Madoff explained, if' smokers would stop, , buying, cigarettes there wouldi be no problem, but smokers are addilcted. ".' . _ . . -.s':. =s r a I T,r Xf a' >_ . me prod'ucts so~d by R.. , . Jf Rey.' nolds, as confirmed by that eoTnpany in January, are Det Monte foods, Heublein spirits and K_entucky Fried L/LliCken. oege indicated that the Iieynolds F . c;onnpanyn might. be au: appropriia'te f'ust, target because~,of..advertising . that impliies that sciewtists cauld' bee wrong about smoking's d'angers.4 Ekplaining hi$,. long-range boycott vision,,. Fbege sand,, `We _can" do this company by company untili we have ( an international agreement that noi tobacco, will be advertised....It might take a decade.or.laager but,i'b is a' issue thatis'worthy of.our attention." In aome of the strongest aermss brought to, bear. on the problem, he as, serted that while cigara;tte selling is legd'•:l,ti6's-liar.d to.W afty ethical su- periority to thedrugtrade.° . Foege also called cigarettWadvertis~ - ing an exploitation that is attemptirig to promote ad''d'ictiion: "Ana we a111 know it works. Ninety percent' of us' who, tried it lost control 'after- we ` started." ~ .::. .Y.`-'-~ One reason anti-smoking " efforts, must target the.industry and not just , the smokers, Foege said, :'is that ad- ' vertising is often aimed at' teenagers who start smoking and then lose ' COI1tr01. K t i r~a' -.c ~ y~ Pointimg ,- out that over bhe iast 20 years smoking levells in thi'rd "world' countries have increased, ur~til they~ match and 'are n ow, exceeding rates `~ in Western world',: _Foe& said 'the ~ anti-advertising eampaign' woulS' be'; a worldwide effort'to keep other coun« tries from repeating our mistakes ~y He cited a World Health Ong,aniza,-.1 tion statistic that, .,461 percent .of , teenagers in Uruguay are now smo1;-_,' ers„ a rate double that' for US' teens.'- ,: Noting estimates tha't:201.to 25 per.-,; cent of adll deaths, or -1,U0©' deaths every day, happen prematurely be-; cause of' cigarette -smoking,, Fbege' stated, "Sonae people:;are..getting'richi wsf h1i1'ood woney-wltith:-ftows at.the, expense of ma'ny_deaths:"•s ~.;.~- f" .; •.1, .. f t '~. . ...:rYs M'Fa'~ ? oege Calls forA BoycOtt 4 ~ - PG9LIC.RELa11Vrvo~.wun'a«~, III~~~/(((7YYYI11f )/ and'ssociates InG A 1'3' LINCOLN ROb1D' •'W:O. BOX 223' "GREFIT NECK, N.Y. 111022 ' •(516)492-571'5 I - .