Clinton aims to curb juvenile smoking by 60 per cent in 10 years

Reed said 3,000 young people were taking up smoking every day, with 1,000 of them dying early as a result. «We want to cut that in half over the next 10 years, and we want to put in place financial penalties that will give the tobacco industry an incentive to stop marketing to children and start taking responsibility for reducing youth smoking», he said. Reed added that the Administration favoured a combination of payments and penalties that could raise the price of cigarettes as much as $1.50 a pack over ten years. The Administration also favoured a national «counter-advertising campaign» to warn young people of the dangers of smoking, he said. However, because of stiff criticism from anti-smoking advocates, the agreement is unlikely to be taken up in Congress this year, leaving it open to further changes and possible collapse.

Under the settlement reached in June, 1998, tobacco companies agreed to curb advertising and marketing and to pay cash penalties if they failed to meet targets for reducing youth smoking. In exchange, they would be protected from certain categories of lawsuits.

The settlement currently says smoking by those 18 or under must fall 30 per cent in five years, 50 per cent in seven years and 60 per cent within 10 years. If those targets are not met, the companies would collectively be required to pay an $80-million fine for each percentage point they fall short. This penalty would be capped at $2 billion a year.

Clinton said that he would invite congressional leaders to the White House to fashion a bipartisan stance on tobacco legislation.

He also said that legislation must protect the interests of tobacco farmers and ensure broad disclosure of tobacco industry documents. The President made no mention of the possibility of any immunity from class-action lawsuits for the tobacco industry, a key part of the original tobacco settlement that was negotiated between the industry and states suing it to recover the vast health-care costs of treating smokers.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-19