O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law Colloquium: Global Tobacco Control

Global Tobacco Control

Wednesday, October 8, 2014
1:20 – 3:20 p.m.
 
Georgetown University Law Center
Faculty Dining Room, Hotung Room 2001
550 First Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Eric N. Lindblom
O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law
Eric N. Lindblom, JD, is a Senior Scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, serving through a special detail from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. Mr. Lindblom is working on a range of projects relating to the authorities and activities of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and the regulatory process, including collaborative efforts with experts and researchers from Georgetown Law School and the University, other academic institutions, and the tobacco control and public health communities, both domestic and worldwide. 

Before coming to the O’Neill Institute in September 2014, Mr. Lindblom was a Senior Advisor to the Director of the Center for Tobacco Products and the Director of the Center’s Office of Policy, where he began serving in January 2011. Mr. Lindblom worked on the full range of FDA tobacco control activities, with a special focus on legal, policy and economic analyses of existing and proposed CTP initiatives. Under his leadership, the CTP Office of Policy also did extensive liaison work with both the tobacco industry and with U.S. and international tobacco control and public health researchers, other experts, government agencies and non- governmental organizations. Click here to read the full bio. 

Matthew L. Myers
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
Matthew L. Myers is President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a leader in the fight to reduce tobacco use and its devastating consequences in the United States and around the world. In 1996, Mr. Myers helped to found the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and has been with the Campaign since its inception. Initially, he served as its Executive Vice President and Legal Counsel and oversaw the Campaign’s legal and advocacy efforts. On January 1, 2000, Mr. Myers became the Campaign’s President. 

In his position at the Campaign Mr. Myers helped to lead the Campaign’s effort to defend FDA’s assertion of jurisdiction over cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in 1996. Mr Myers then served as a close advisor to the State Attorneys General in the 1990s when they sued the tobacco industry. He participated in the 1996 negotiations that led to the first ever settlement with a tobacco company, Liggett and Myers, an agreement that broke the tobacco industry’s unity and resulted in the release of a massive amount of previously secret tobacco industry documents. In 1997, at the request of the State Attorneys General and the White House, Mr. Myers participated in the negotiations that led to the unprecedented agreement between the tobacco industry and the states in June 1997. He then served as one of the leading spokespersons for the legislative debate related to that settlement that followed in Congress. Click here to read the full bio. 

The O'Neill Institute Colloquium is open to all students, faculty, staff, and interested members of the public. 

The hashtag for this event is #oneillcolloquium.

For more information on O’Neill Institute events, please visit http://www.law.georgetown.edu/oneillinstitute/

Federal Tobacco Tax Hike Would Reduce Smoking, Raise Revenue

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

 

Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

WASHINGTON, DC – A report issued today by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities provides important new support for increasing the federal tobacco tax, finding it would be both highly effective in reducing smoking and a reliable and predictable source of revenue to fund early childhood education initiatives proposed by President Obama.  The report also finds that the tobacco tax increase would deliver the greatest benefits to lower-income people, including health benefits from reductions in smoking and educational benefits from expanding early childhood education.  These conclusions refute tobacco industry claims that a tobacco tax increase is not a reliable source of revenue and would hurt lower-income people.

The combined policy of a tobacco tax increase and expansion of early childhood education “is designed to benefit people both at the ‘front end,’ by expanding opportunity, and at the ‘back end,’ by improving health and extending lives,” the report concludes.

This report demonstrates that the President’s proposal to increase the federal cigarette tax by 94 cents per pack to fund early childhood education would be a “win-win” for our nation’s children, improving their health and education.  The proposal also calls for increasing taxes on other tobacco products.  The tobacco tax increases would raise $78.1 billion over 10 years, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

The new report found the tobacco tax increase would:

·         Be an effective way to reduce smoking:  “Tobacco taxes are a proven strategy to reducing smoking, particularly among teenagers and low-income people.  Given the high health costs of tobacco use, reducing smoking rates would lead to substantial health gains.”

 ·         Be a reliable and predictable source of revenue:  The report finds that the higher tobacco tax would raise the revenue needed to fund early childhood education, even while reducing smoking.  “The President’s proposal takes into account this positive behavioral response and assumes that revenue falls at the end of the ten-year budget window.  Even so, the estimated revenue is sufficient to pay for the proposal over ten years.”

·         Deliver significant health benefits to lower-income people.  “The health benefits of a higher tobacco tax are progressive.  Because low-income people are more sensitive to changes in tobacco prices, they will be more likely than high-income people to smoke less, quit, or never start in response to a tax increase.”  The report also concludes, “Expanding early childhood education – in particular for low- and moderate-income children – as the President has proposed is a very progressive use of the revenue from raising the tobacco tax.”

Study after study has shown that increasing the tobacco tax is one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking and other tobacco use, especially among kids.  Even tobacco companies admit in their own documents that tobacco tax increases reduce youth smoking, which is why they vehemently oppose them.  Economic research has found that every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by six or seven percent and overall cigarette consumption by three to five percent.

The health and economic benefits of a federal tobacco tax increase were confirmed in a 2012 report by the Congressional Budget Office.  The CBO found that a 50-cent increase in the federal tobacco tax would raise substantial new revenue while prompting nearly 1.4 million adult smokers to quit by 2021, saving tens of thousands of lives and reducing health care costs, including for the Medicaid program. Based on the CBO’s statement that a $1 tax increase would roughly double those benefits, we estimate that a 94-cent cigarette tax increase would prompt 2.6 million adult smokers to quit and save 18,000 lives by 2021.

In addition to these gains from helping current smokers quit, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has estimated that a 94-cent increase in the federal cigarette tax would:

·         Prevent 1.7 million kids from becoming addicted adult smokers

·         Prevent 626,000 premature deaths from these reductions in youth smoking alone

·         Save $42 billion in future health care costs from these reductions in youth smoking.

In addition to the many health and revenue benefits, national and state polls have consistently found strong public support for substantial increases in tobacco taxes, with Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike expressing support.

Tobacco use is the number on cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people and costing $96 billion in health care bills each year.  The evidence is clear: The proposed increase in federal tobacco taxes would be both a health win and an economic win for our nation.

Senator Lautenberg Was a Champion in the Fight Against Tobacco

Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Jun. 3 2013

Reposted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

WASHINGTON, DC – We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Senator Frank Lautenberg this morning. Our nation has lost a true leader, who among his many accomplishments fought passionately to protect our nation’s kids and health from the deadly scourge of tobacco use.

Throughout his career, Senator Lautenberg courageously took on the tobacco industry and championed efforts to reduce tobacco use, the nation’s number one cause of preventable death. Earlier in his service, he led efforts to ban smoking on commercial airline flights and in federal buildings, inspiring the national movement to require smoke-free workplaces and public places. He fought to stop the fraudulent marketing of “light” and “low-tar” cigarettes and to require disclosure of ingredients in tobacco products, which became part of the landmark 2009 law that gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco. More recently, he has worked to expose the marketing of flavored cigars to kids, increase tobacco taxes and crack down on tobacco smuggling. He also was a leader in the successful effort to urge Major League Baseball to restrict players’ use of smokeless tobacco on the field and at public events.

Senator Lautenberg’s legacy includes a healthier nation due to his efforts to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. We are grateful for his hard work and dedication to this nation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Originally posted at   http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/press_releases/post/2013_06_03_lautenberg

Judge Orders Tobacco Companies to Tell Truth

Statement of Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

Reprinted at http://www.tobaccodeathray.blogspot.com,

WASHINGTON, DC – A federal judge today ordered tobacco companies to admit that they have deliberately deceived the American public and finally tell the truth about their deadly and addictive products and fraudulent marketing. Today’s ruling is a critical step toward ending decades of tobacco industry deception that has resulted in millions of premature deaths, untold suffering and billions in health care costs. Requiring the tobacco companies to finally tell the truth is a small price to pay for the devastating consequences of their wrongdoing.

Today’s ruling implements the corrective statements U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler first ordered tobacco companies to make in 2006 when she found them guilty of violating civil racketeering laws and engaging in a decades-long fraud to deceive the American people.

It is particularly important that Judge Kessler ordered the tobacco companies to admit in each corrective statement that “a Federal court has ruled that the Defendant tobacco companies deliberately deceived the American public.” Judge Kessler ordered the corrective statements to prevent future deception by the tobacco companies. To achieve this goal, the tobacco companies must be required to tell the public the truth not only about their products, but also about their prior deceit so consumers will not be misled in the future. Without such an admission, the tobacco companies could turn the court’s requirement that they tell the truth into an opportunity to appear trustworthy, enabling them to continue deceiving the public.

Implementing Judge Kessler’s 2006 judgment, today’s order requires tobacco companies to make corrective statements about the adverse health effects of smoking and secondhand smoke; the addictiveness of nicotine; the lack of health benefits from smoking “light” and “low-tar” cigarettes; and the companies’ manipulation of cigarette design and composition to ensure optimum nicotine delivery. The corrective statements will be made through newspaper and television advertising, on the companies’ web sites and on cigarette packaging.

The Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund (a 501c4 affiliate of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids) is one of six public health groups that Judge Kessler allowed to intervene in the case, along with the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and National African American Tobacco Prevention Network.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-usa-tobacco-update-1l1e8mr9lr-20121127,0,1198091,full.story