BACKGROUND NOTE: This document reveals
in very straightforward language the reason why
the tobacco industry fights measures that provide the public with clean
indoor air: reduced sales.
It also discusses the industry's lobbying
structure in the states, the difficulties the industry faces due to the
efforts of voluntary health organzations, and reveals the results of the
tobacco industry's own polls that show overwhelming (and steadily
increasing) public support for smoke-free public places and workplaces:
Quotes:
Our ninth Roper survey last year showed a dramatic increase in the
number of respondents who believe it is probably hazardous to be around
people who are smoking. In 1974, fewer than half of the respondents
believed this. Today, nearly 7 in 10 agree. And for the first time, a
majority of smokers believe that ambient smoke is hazardous. A decade
ago, only 30 percent believed that. If this trend -- toward increasing
public acceptance that ambient cigarette smoke is dangerous --
continues, in just eight years we will find that the percentage who
accept public smoking as a probable hazard will equal the percentage who
accept primary smoking as a hazard.
Although health remains the most salient of the issues addressed by
nonsmokers, the Roper results continued to report an increase in the
number of people who said they found it annoying to be around smokers.
Two-thirds of nonsmokers said they were annoyed. In 1970, only
one-third reported annoyance. Even smokers are now reporting annoyance
about being around other smokers -- one in ten. A just-completed survey
of journalists shows similar results.
...Meanwhile, proposals to restrict smoking in public places continue to
increase...what began in the states in Arizona in 1973 has spread across
the country -- most recently to the local and federal levels.
You've heard the numbers. Our industry has faced more than 1,200
smoking restriction bills in the last 15 years, with a better than 90
percent sucess rate [of defeat].
...But we are badly outnumbered by the voluntary health organizations,
who can call upon more than 3 million members or volunteers
nationwide...we are outnumbered 900,000 to 12,000 in terms of
individuals who are willing to act when called upon. That's a ratio of
75-to-1.... And those numbers don't even take into account the fact that
those 75 individuals boast a far greater credibility with legislators
and the general public than our one.
...Public opinion is increasingly on the anti-smoker' side as well. Our
1984 Roper survey found increasing support for separate sections for
smokers in public places, especially in eating and work places. A
decade ago, about half the public favored separate smoking and
nonsmoking sections in restaurants. Today, 90 percent do.
...What do these health claims, the heightened public sentinment for
smoking restriction, increasing nonsmoker annoyance toward smokers mean
for this industry? Lower sales, of course....The Tobacco Merchant's
Association took a look at smoking restriction legislation and cigarette
consumption between 1951 and 1982. Restrictive smoking laws accounted
for 2% of the variation in cigarette consumption from state to state
during that time...
[again citing Roper data]...Those who say they work under [smoking]
restrictions smoked about one-and-a-quarter fewer cigarettes each day
than those who don't. That may sound light, but remember we're talking
about light restrictions, too.... Those 220 people in our survey who
work under smoking restrictions represent some 15 million Americans.
That one-and-one-quarter per day cigarette reduction, then, means nearly
7 billion fewer cigarettes smoked each year because of workplace smoking
restrictions... That's 350 million packs of cigarettes. At a dollar a
pack, even the lightest of workplace smoking restrictions is costing
this industry 233 million dollars a year in revenue. How much more will
it cost us with far more restrictive laws such as those in Suffolk
County and Fort Collings now being enacted?
Anne Landman
American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region Office
Grand Junction
Document Title: I. Public Smoking: The Problem (SDC introduction)
Type of Document: speech/presentation
Author: No author given
Date: No date given
No. of Pages: 12
Site: Tobacco Institute http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/
URL:
http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/getallimg.asp?DOCID=TIMN0014554/4565