395 



V^NCER^ + AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION. ^"''Asro"c"uon .^ 



^ cr\^\C.'TW * I Fighting Heart Disease 



K J<JVJt I T • and Stroke 



Coalition on Smoking OR Health 



For Release: Contact: Joe Marx. AHA 



Thursday. May 26, 1994 202/822-9380 



Diane Maple, ALA 

 202/785-3355 

 Curtis Allen, ACS 

 404/329-7920 



TOBACCO RESEARCH COUNCIL HAS BEEN PART OF TOBACCO 

 INDUSTRY DECEPTION, HEALTH GROLTS SAY 



Washington, May 26 —The Council for Tobacco Research has been part of the tobacco 

 industry's shroud of deception, says the American Heart Association, the American Lung 

 Association and the American Cancer Society, united as the Coalition on Smoking OR Health. 



"Evidence that has surfaced in tobacco liability cases clearly shows that the Council for Tobacco 

 Research was a linchpin in the tobacco industry's strategy to mislead the public and the Congress 

 about the dangers of smoking," says Scott D. Ballin. chairman of the steering committee of the 

 coalition and vice president, public affairs for the AHA. 



Adds Ballin, "The council's role was to provide a front for the tobacco industry's campaign to 

 discredit the medical evidence that smoking causes disease. The council fit perfectly into tobacco 

 companies' primary objectives to sabotage tobacco control legislation and to protect themselves 

 from liability." 



Two years ago, the coalition sent a letter to Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House 

 Energy and Commerce Committee, asking for an investigation to determine if the tobacco industry 

 had lied to Congress about the purpose of the Council for Tobacco Research. The coalition 

 provided Mr. Dingell with internal tobacco industry documents that were made public in two major 

 tobacco liability cases that were heard in the New Jersey federal court system, CipoUone v. Liggett 

 Group. Inc. and Haines v. Liggett Group, Inc. 



"Since the 1950s, representatives of the Tobacco Institute, the major tobacco companies, the 

 Council for Tobacco Research and public relations firms representing the tobacco industry have 

 appeared before numerous congressional committees, made statements to the media and 

 conducted widespread public relations campaigns that had no other purpose than to deceive," the 

 letter said. 



Says Ballin, "We commend Representative Waxman and his subcommittee for initiating these 

 important hearings. The investigation must continue so that all the facts are brought before the 

 public. But we also need a public policy solution that 



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