For Immediate Release
PEDIATRICIANS COMPLETE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT REVIEW
Assessment identifies five areas for improvement
Washington, D.C.--The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) today announced that the tobacco settlement shows promise in helping stem tobacco use among adolescents and children, however five key areas must be strengthened in order to increase its effectiveness.
"The settlement marks a real change in the way the tobacco industry deals with children and the public in general," said AAP President Robert Hannemann, M.D., who selected four pediatricians with expertise in substance abuse to review the document over the last three weeks.
"For decades there has been mounting evidence that the tobacco industry has promoted products that are harmful, addictive and targeted through their advertising to children," Dr. Hannemann noted. "Now the industry is beginning to account for years of victimizing youth and the public."
Since the settlement will likely be used as a framework to craft federal legislation, the American Academy of Pediatrics felt it was important to tell the administration and Congress what provisions must be changed to ensure children and adolescents benefit in the short and long term. The following five areas must be strengthened:
Advertising?The AAP supports a ban on all tobacco product advertising. The settlement does not go far enough. Despite the demise of Joe Camel and prohibiting the use of human figures, the advertising world can still make tremendous inroads to influence youth into thinking tobacco products make them cool, sexy or popular.
Childrens Health Insurance?The AAP would support the use of tobacco settlement funds to cover uninsured children, yet it is disturbing that we, as a nation, have to rely on an industry thats responsible for so many health problems, to help finance childrens health insurance. The irony is almost unbelievable.
Class Action Suits/Passive Smoke The ability to file class action suits must be preserved. The body of knowledge surrounding harmful effects of passive smoke and prenatal exposure to nicotine continues to grow. We have not sufficiently researched the physical and environmental threats to infants and children, so the loss of the ability to file class action law suits could potentially hinder this population from recovering damages in the future.
Penalties/Enforcement The penalties/enforcement measures for reducing childrens tobacco use are not sufficient. The AAP supports the recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Tobacco Policy and Public Health: "Specific and increasingly stringent targets for reduction of tobacco use by children and adolescents should be established and become binding on the tobacco industry by brand within the next two years. Failure by the tobacco industry to meet these targets should result in predictable financial penalties sufficiently severe to act as a strong deterrent to continued failure."
FDA Regulation of Nicotine The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
should be able to modify the amount of nicotine and other harmful ingredients in tobacco products without being exposed to complicated regulatory, judicial and legislative maneuvers.
The AAP members who reviewed the document were George Comerci, M.D., AAP past president, of Tucson, Ariz.; Richard Heyman, M.D., chair of the AAP Committee on Substance Abuse (COSA), of Cincinnati, Ohio; Manuel Schydlower, M.D., former COSA chair, of El Paso, Texas; and Michael Weitzman, M.D., chair of the AAP Committee on Community Health Services, of Rochester, N.Y.
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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 53,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists, and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety, and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.
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