AAPHP News - Volume 2 Issue 13

News Items

1. AAPHP Tobacco Policy -  Input and comments needed to Joel Nitzkin by Sunday July 15, 2001 - See Item 1 below
2.  New IOM project beginning - Assuring the health of the public project website - http://www4.nas.edu/webcr.nsf/MeetingDisplay3/HPDP-H-99-09-A?OpenDocument
   From  Kim Buttery.  "This project is important to all of us in PH, particularly the AAPHP.  While we don't have a member on the committee, between us we should know everyone and be able to make recommendations."
3. AAPHP member Ron Davis elected to the AMA House of Delegates  See Item 3 for full election results.
4. CDC's Office on Smoking and Health Database for information - Instructions for joining.  See Item 4 below.

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 AAPHP News is sent to members whenever we receive several items of potential interest. Send  information for this newsletter to the editor Virginia Dato MD MPH at vmdato@pitt.edu.  Please forward this newsletter to physicians who may be interested in joining.  A membership application form can be found on our web page http://www.aaphp.org.

Item 1.  This is a note from Joel Nitzkin to the AAPHP  board.  Joel also welcomes input from the general membership.  His email addiress is jln-md@mindspring.com.
Note input is requested by Sunday July 15, 2001.

To:                   AAPHP Board

From:              Joel Nitzkin

Subject:           Proposed Plan for AAPHP Tobacco-Related Advocacy, July through October, 2001

 Introductory Statement

This memo is in response to discussion that took place at our July 5 conference call Board Meeting.

For the past eight months, AAPHP has been quiet on the tobacco-control advocacy front -- not because there were no issues deserving our attention -- but because the approach taken by the new Bush administration was so pro-tobacco and so vigorous on so many fronts that I did not see any opportunity for AAPHP to intervene in a meaningful way.

The opportunity now exists for AAPHP to play a meaningful advocacy role.

The plan envisioned at our July 5 conference call was a single letter, to be co-signed by APHA, ACPM, NACCHO, ASTHO and possibly other general-public-health organizations, and directed to Senate Majority Leader Daschle (or perhaps to Sen. Kennedy),

The July 5 discussion also suggested presentation of the letter in some form of news conference with the Senator, and/or publishing the letter as a full-page ad in the New York Times and/or other major newspapers.

Outline of General Plan

After duly considering the July 5 suggestions, I have drafted the following proposed letter, and this general plan, for input from AAPHP Board members between now and Sunday afternoon, before I proceed with the next steps in this process.

1. To be of any practical value, this cannot be a one-time venture.  I therefore envision a process by which the collected public health organizations would generate some item of correspondence to an appropriate person in the House and Senate, with as much publicity as possible once every two to six weeks between now and late October. We can then reconsider continuation or elimination of this process, when we meet in Atlanta, in October, in conjunction with the APHA meeting.
2. Before generating anything in writing to the Senate, I feel the need to discuss this plan with sister public health agencies (as listed above) and at least one appropriate staff person in Senator Daschle’s office and/or Senator Kennedy’s office.
3. Once underway, AAPHP will need to authorize me to generate the desired draft correspondence on behalf of AAPHP, circulate it to the Board for content within three working days, then proceed on the basis of the comment (if any) secured.  This is basically the same process we used in 1997 and 1998 when dealing with the issue of the immunity to liability. The process worked well, but was contentious within the public health community and our own organization because some felt we should compromise, and others felt so strongly against encouraging lawsuits as a way to address public health issues that they opposed our stand on this issue.  I see no such contention or debate relative to the current situation and the issues now facing us.

Proposed Text of Initial Letter
Re: Tobacco Control as a Public Health Issue

Honorable Senator Daschle (or Kennedy or each of our own senators)

We, as a group of concerned public health organizations, hereby request that the Senate Majority take the following actions with regard to tobacco as a public health issue:

1. Conduct hearings:
1. To explore the actions taken by the Bush administration to date with regard to tobacco-related issues, both at home and abroad, and
2. To explore the impact of tobacco industry contributions to Republican Party causes on Bush Administration tobacco-related administrative actions and policy decisions.
2. Develop and promote a legislative agenda that will help reduce addiction, illness, disability, and death from tobacco products, both at home and abroad. Such an agenda should include reversal of the anti-public-health actions of the current administration and take the congressional action needed to respond to Supreme Court decisions in recent cases relative to FDA regulation and state restriction of promotion of tobacco products.

The public health case against the tobacco industry can be briefly summarized as follows:

• For decades, tobacco has been the “Number 1” preventable cause of death in the United States, and a major cause of death abroad.
• Each year, tobacco products cause the premature deaths of over 400,000 Americans, and the premature deaths of millions, worldwide.
• For decades, the tobacco industry has been aware of the addictive nature and toxicity of tobacco products -- and lied about this to congress and the American public.
• Not only have they lied, they have purposely manipulated the nicotine content to establish and maintain addiction to tobacco products.
• As restrictions on advertising, clean indoor air initiatives, and increased taxation have reduced tobacco sales in the United States, the tobacco industry has vigorously pursued market expansion abroad, especially in third-world nations – telling the same lies and using the same techniques that had served them so well in the United States – with total disregard for anything other than their own corporate profits.

Despite all this, the Bush Administration seems to be doing everything within its power to enhance the profitability of the tobacco industry with no regard to the public health impact of their actions. A summary listing is as follows:

• Despite what appeared a very strong case, the U.S. Department of Justice cut the budget needed to move the lawsuit forward, then (possibly in response to a suggestion from the tobacco industry) proposed to settle the lawsuit – on what we suspect will be grounds favorable to the industry.
• Used its influence to emasculate the first proposed international treaty dealing with tobacco-related issues – as proposed at the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
• Appointed key regulators at the Federal Trade Commission who have worked for the tobacco industry.
• Used the power of the US Trade Representatives to reduce tariffs to be imposed on imported tobacco products in South Korea.
• Proposed reduction in the tobacco prevention budget of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• In addition, and in a seemingly related move, Rep Tom Davis (R-VA) and Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) are the primary sponsors of legislation that takes the industry’s approach to tobacco regulation – a smokescreen full of holes to protect the industry and inhibit effective governmental action to reduce addiction, illness, disability and death from tobacco products.

Why this special treatment for a socially irresponsible industry? Perhaps this behavior is payback for financial support.

The tobacco industry made more than $8.3 million in federal campaign contributions during the last election, 83% of it to Republicans, including $900,000 to the Bush Presidential Campaign. From 1992 to 2000, Philip Morris was the single biggest donor of unregulated “soft money” contributions, giving a total of $9.5 million, most of it to Republicans.

We therefore request Senate hearings and Senate action to reverse these anti-public-health initiatives. Legislation could also be crafted to lay the groundwork for effective FDA regulation and to empower states to more effectively restrict tobacco product promotion. By so doing, the Senate could play a lead role in reducing illness, disability and death from tobacco products, world-wide.

Respectfully Submitted:

Signatories for
AAPHP
APHA
NACCHO
ASTHO
ACPM
??other??

JLN:jln 070801AAP Tobc  .doc 

Joel L. Nitzkin, MD, MPH, DPA, FACPM
JLN, MD Associates
4939 Chestnut Street
New Orleans, LA 70115-2941
Phone: (504) 899 7893 or (800)598-2561; Fax:(504 ) 899 7557
E-mail: mailto:jln@jln-md.com or mailto:jln-md@mindspring.com
Web site: http://jln-md.com/
Disease and Demand Management, Public Health and Preventive Services

Item 3 - From AMA news Ron Davis is listed as a trustee - Ginny

 HOUSE OF DELEGATES ELECTS NEW OFFICERS, COUNCIL MEMBERS

Trustee results:

President-elect -- Yank D. Coble, MD

Speaker of the House -- John A. Knote, MD

Vice Speaker of the House -- Nancy H. Nielsen, MD, PhD

Trustees -- Herman I. Abromowitz, MD, Ronald M. Davis, MD, Timothy T.

Flaherty, MD, John C. Nelson, MD, J. James Rohack, MD, Peter Y. Watson, MD

(resident)

Item 4 From Bill Godshall's list server. (To join that list serve email a note to bill@smokescreen.org.

From:                       "Bill Godshall" bill@smokescreen.org 

To:                         "Health Advocates" bg-announce@smokescreen.org 

Subject:                    [bg-announce]CDC OSH database

Date sent:                  Wed, 27 Jun 2001 18:29:35 -0400

If you would like to be included in the CDC's database to receive tobacco related information, please fill out the following form and e-mail it to Monica Swann at: Zqe0@cdc.gov 

- - -

HELP US TO UPDATE OUR DATABASE

Dear Colleague:

CDC's Office on Smoking and Health is in the process of updating its database of contacts.  We use this data base for disseminating notices of public meetings, Surgeon Generals Reports, and other

documents.  If you would like to be included in this data base, please provide us with your contact information:
Name:
Degrees:
Title:
Organization:
Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail:

Areas of interest: (Please check all that are applicable)

_____ Youth
_____ Adult
_____ Advertising
_____ Cessation
_____ Economics
_____ Environmental Tobacco Smoke
_____ Master Settlement Agreement
_____ Morbidity & Mortality Trends
_____ Surveys/Surveillance Systems
_____ Tobacco Products
_____ Warning Labels
_____ International
_____ National
_____ State/Local
_____ Laws & Regulation
_____ Litigation
_____ Other areas (please specify)

Areas of expertise: (Please only check areas where you have a demonstrated expertise)

_____ Youth
_____ Adult
_____ Advertising
_____ Cessation
_____ Economics
_____ Environmental Tobacco Smoke
_____ Master Settlement Agreement
_____ Morbidity & Mortality Trends
_____ Surveys/Surveillance Systems
_____ Tobacco Products
_____ Warning Labels
_____ International
_____ National
_____ State/Local
_____ Laws & Regulation
_____ Litigation
_____ Other areas (please specify)

Please e-mail your response with the requested information by June 28, 2001.

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