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Secret Docs Show Tobacco Industry Influence in Black America

Posted Wednesday, November 20 @ 17:57:54 EST


Previously secret documents show that tobacco companies provided
money, cultivated social and political ties, and aggressively offered
free cigarettes to African American leadership groups –even as the
evidence grew that African Americans bear a disproportionate share of
the tobacco-related disease burden, researchers at the University of
California say.

From the University of California at San Francisco:


Secret Documents Reveal Tobacco Industry Influence

Previously secret documents show that tobacco companies provided
money, cultivated social and political ties, and aggressively offered
free cigarettes to African American leadership groups –even as the
evidence grew that African Americans bear a disproportionate share of
the tobacco-related disease burden.

UCSF researchers will present findings from a new study of the
internal tobacco industry documents at a press conference to be held
at 11 a.m. (PST), Wednesday, November 20, 2002 at the Hilton Hotel,
333 O'Farrell Street, SF, Union Square, Room 14 (Building 3, 4th
floor). The research appears in the December 2002 issue of the
journal Tobacco Control, published by the British Medical
Association.

Recipients of tobacco money included more than 60 African American
organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, the congressional Black Caucus, the National Black
Police Association, and the National Urban League, said UCSF
researchers.

"The combination of money, opportunities for cigarette sampling, and
shared board relationships between the tobacco industry and African
American leadership groups have all shaped tobacco's pervasive
presence in African American communities," said Valerie Yerger, MA,
ND, research associate in the UCSF School of Nursing and lead author
of the study. "Tobacco kills too many African Americans, particularly
elders. It's time to look at the true cost of accepting tobacco
money."

The study shows that tobacco industry representatives sought out
African American leaders to oppose policies restricting smoking in
public places and to circumvent laws and policies prohibiting
cigarette sampling in public schools and parks, said Yerger. In
addition, the industry relied heavily on African American leaders to
make the case that raising cigarette taxes hurt African Americans. To
accomplish this, tobacco industry representatives coordinated press
conferences and provided material for op-eds that appeared in the
black press, she said.

"Loyalty has limits," said Charyn Sutton, a nationally known tobacco
control advocate in the black community. "In balancing the damage
done by tobacco against the benefits of tobacco money and support,
the black community has lost far more than it has gained."

The press conference is sponsored by national leaders of the African
American tobacco control movement, including the Reverend Jesse Brown
Jr., executive director of the National Association of African
Americans for Positive Imagery, which spearheaded the successful
campaign against Uptown, a menthol cigarette created by R.J. Reynolds
that was to be marketed to the black community.

Senior author on the study is Ruth Malone, PhD, associate professor
in the UCSF School of Nursing. The study was funded by the California
Tobacco Related Disease Research Program and the National Cancer
Institute.

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