But as long as Congress and the President are in one of their "we're shocked modes," they ought to look at our longest running scandal. That's the tobacco companies, which still escape virtually all regulation, and are now killing over four million people a year worldwide, over 400,000 in the U.S. alone, and will be killing an estimated 8.4 million people worldwide every year by 2020.
Congress has been well aware of this legalized slaughter for many decades but has done nothing about it. And no American president (other than Clinton) has pushed for long-needed tobacco regulation.
When another consumer product (such as a toy, a bike, or a tire) starts killing in the dozens or hundreds, even Congress is embarrassed into action. Note the recent Firestone-tire-Ford-Explorer misadventure. So how many people do cigarettes have to kill every year before Congress takes action? You would think that 8.4 million a year would be more than enough, but apparently it isn't.
One of the reasons that Congress ignores the issue is that the mainstream national media also ignore it, and don't mobilize public opinion on the issue. Perhaps the advertising dollars from the tobacco companies are enough to buy their silence or relative inactivity. One of the few sources of the truth on tobacco is the World Health Organization (WHO) based in Geneva, Switzerland.
A release I received from WHO points out some statistics, which might inspire Congress to action. WHO asks the question: "What must you do to market a product that kills half of its regular users? What enticements must you resort to in order to addict those regular users early, sometimes as early as nine years old? How do you package death as life, disease as health and deadly addiction as the taste of freedom and celebration of life?"
The answer is to do exactly as the tobacco companies have been doing, despite pious protestations to the contrary. The tobacco companies are still in the business of glamorizing tobacco and addicting teenagers and ever-younger children. WHO says one-third of young smokers start before the age of ten. Even the illegal dope dealers don't stoop that low.
Here's the answer WHO gives as to what the tobacco companies are doing: "Look no further than your nearest playground or that shirt on your favorite athlete's back or the shoe, or the bag, or the jacket. Look no further than tobacco companies' own documents that tell you how they promote tobacco in the playground to unsuspecting children. Compare these documents to the public relations spin that the tobacco companies regularly put out - their words don't fit their actions."
WHO documents this conclusion by citing facts such as these: "When an Indian associate of the British American Tobacco group sponsored the Indian World Cup Cricket in 1997, a survey showed that smoking among Indian teenagers increased five-fold. There was also marked increase in false perceptions about athletic excellence and smoking."
In other words, WHO says that tobacco is a "communicated disease." It is communicated through advertising, through promotion, through sponsorship. WHO uses this example: "Perhaps the most pernicious form of that marketing pitch is to be found in stadia and sports arenas worldwide."
The tobacco companies spend millions sponsoring sports events worldwide. In the U.S. alone, according to the Federal Trade Commission, the tobacco companies spent $113.6 million in 1999 on sports and sporting events. Even though tobacco television advertising is banned in the U.S., it is estimated that sports sponsorship is the equivalent of $150 million a year in television advertising.
Tobacco companies claim that sports sponsoring is part of a larger charitable and philanthropic effort. But WHO quotes an R.J. Reynolds memo of 1989 that read: "We're in the cigarette business. We're not in the sports business. We use sports as an avenue for advertising our products. We can go into an area when we're marketing an event, measure sales during an event and measure sales after the event, and see an increase in sales."
WHO cites other examples of the tobacco companies saying one thing to the public, and quite another in their confidential inter-company communications. But you would hardly expect a group of companies that enthusiastically and aggressively market a product they know kills four million a year to tell the truth. They have never told the truth. It is apparently impossible for them to do so, and that should surprise no one.
The only surprising aspect of the tobacco scene is that our government has not done something about those who kill and lie so brazenly, and continue to do so after their motives and the consequences of their actions are transparent for everyone to see.
Even while our government sleeps and our politicians keep pocketing checks from the tobacco industry, WHO is trying to end the tobacco killing. It is issuing a global call to end "the deception and resulting death" that tobacco companies are unleashing. It is proposing both global and national solutions, legislation and regulation, and even litigation to control tobacco misconduct.
The tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, are countering this international effort by proposals for self-regulation or for voluntary action. But WHO is right on target with this put-down of the tobacco companies: "Self-regulation invariable fails because it was never meant to succeed - tobacco companies know this and so does the rest of the world."
WHO urges people everywhere "to take back their right to health and healthy living and to protect future generations from the preventable death and disease caused by tobacco."
Isn't it about time that even our government, including Congress and the President, does something to regulate tobacco and stop its addiction of the young and its slaughter of the millions? Is there no limit to what we'll let the tobacco companies get away with? So far the answer is "no."
Herb Denenberg is a former Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner, professor at the Wharton School, and
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissioner. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National
Academy of Sciences and is a board member of the Center for Safe Medication Use. He is an adjunct
professor of insurance and information science and technology at Cabrini College. You can write Herb
at POB 7301,St. Davids, PA e-mail him at hdenenberg@aol.com or reach him at his two Web sites:
thedenrep_archive.org or denenbergsdump.org