To the editor:
In an effort to provide fairness to all parties and balanced information to Deseret News readers, I am responding to J. Gordon Short's ill-informed attack ("My View," July 18) on tobacco industry programs to discourage youth smoking.First of all, if another young person never smoked another cigarette, it would be just fine with the tobacco industry.
In fact, to expand and reaffirm our longstanding commitment and positive actions against youth smoking, The Tobacco Institute announced on Dec. 11, 1990, a series of strong new initiatives. These initiatives tackle the problem on many fronts because reducing youth smoking can't be accomplished by any single action.
According to a recent report of the U.S. Surgeon General, and many other experts, one of the primary reasons young people smoke is peer pressure. So, with the help of educators and others who work with young people, we developed a publication to assist parents in reducing that peer pressure.
Because this is an ongoing, open-ended campaign, the total cost - while certainly in the millions - is virtually unknown at this junction. The source of the dollar figures cited by Short are known only to him.
He points to a preposterous "$4 billion" figure for tobacco advertising expenditures when the Federal Trade Commission's 1989 figures for total ad expenditures by the six major U.S. cigarette makers is $700 million. In a $40+ billion domestic market, this is not an unreasonable sum. What is unreasonable is the clamor and exaggeration employed in Short's comparison.
Equally unreasonable is Short's bewildering accusation that we pay stores to help kids shoplift cigarettes. Actually, we have set into motion new measures to help keep cigarettes out of the hands of kids.
And the tobacco industry supports new state laws setting 18 as the minimum age for cigarette sales.
We have also announced sharp limitations on the distribution of free product samples on public streets, sidewalks and parks; a new requirement that billboards advertising cigarettes be at least 500 feet from any elementary, junior and senior high school and children's playground; and other additions to the existing industry's marketing guidelines. These actions respond positively to concerns expressed recently about cigarette advertising and promotion.
While the tobacco industry may never satisfy all of its critics, we are committed to seeing these positive new programs work.
Thomas Lauria
Assistant to the president
The Tobacco Institute
Washington, D.C.