Whereas, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and kills more than 400,000 Americans every year — more deaths than from AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, drugs, fires, and war combined; and
Whereas, 90 percent of adult smokers begin smoking at or before age 19; and
Whereas, 95 percent of teens who smoke cigarettes start before age 16, the average age of initiation for teens who smoke cigarettes is 12 ¼; and
Whereas, between one third and one half of youth who try a cigarette will become daily smokers; and each day, more than 2,000 children and teens become regular smokers — more than one million a year — and a third of them will eventually die from a tobacco-related disease; and
Whereas, youth smoking prevention and public education efforts such as the American Legacy Foundation's truth® campaign are helping to produce dramatic declines in youth smoking rates, with the 2002 National Youth Tobacco Survey showing the following declines in smoking between 2000 and 2002 among students who had high exposure to the truth® campaign: a 29 percent decline among high school students and a 33 percent decline among middle school students; and
Whereas, the State signatories to the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) signed in November 1998 by attorneys general in 46 states and five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry created the American Legacy Foundation because the States recognized that a comprehensive, coordinated program of public education and study was important to further the remedial goals of the MSA; and
Whereas, the State signatories to the MSA designated that a portion of the funds recovered from the tobacco industry be assigned to the American Legacy Foundation to support its programs, including the National Public Education Fund; and
Whereas, the American Legacy Foundation's truth® campaign is funded by these recovered state funds through annual payments by the tobacco industry in accordance with the MSA; and
Whereas, the obligation of the tobacco industry to make annual payments to support the Public Education Fund after March 31, 2003 (the 5 year anniversary of the MSA) is contingent on the MSA's original participating tobacco manufacturers — Philip Morris, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard, R.J. Reynolds — and the subsequent participating companies controlling 99.05% of the combined cigarette market share; and
Whereas, as of April 2003, the MSA's four original participating tobacco manufacturers and the subsequent participating companies will no longer meet the 99.05% threshold and are not expected to do so in the foreseeable future, and therefore will no longer be required by the MSA to continue making annual payments to support the Public Education Fund.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, demand that the tobacco companies accede to court-supervised funding of the Public Education Fund through the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which they signed with the states in 1998. This fund provides the financial resources necessary for the American Legacy Foundation to wage counter-marketing campaigns including truth®, which has significantly reduced the number of American teenagers who use tobacco.
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