U.S. doctors urge investors to dump their tobacco stocks

April 23, 1996
Web posted at: 10:55 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The American Medical Association delivered a stinging salvo in the war on smoking Tuesday, urging Americans to divest stocks tied to what it called the "ruinous and enslaving" tobacco industry.

It was the second big blow to the industry this week. On Monday, the anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) released transcripts of what it says were secret tape recordings from a meeting at tobacco company Philip Morris. On the tape, a woman identified by ASH as a top executive, discusses methods of removing carcinogens from cigarettes.

ASH said the tape proves the industry knew how to make a safer cigarette but didn't.

In briefings in Washington and a special edition of its Journal Tuesday, the AMA exhorted doctors, institutional investors and "people interested in the health and welfare of our children" to sell their stock in 13 companies that make tobacco products and the 1,474 mutual funds that hold tobacco-related stocks and bonds.

The AMA disposed of its own tobacco-related stocks a decade ago, and several other prominent health organizations did so in the 1980s.

The doctors' group also unveiled a multi-pronged attack on tobacco companies, making it clear that it wants to hit the tobacco industry where it hurts -- in the wallet.

Study: job-loss argument flawed

The AMA also rebutted the industry's dire prediction of job loss if tobacco sales decline. According to a study to be published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), some 222,000 jobs would be lost in six major tobacco-growing states by the year 2000 if all Americans gave up smoking.

But in that same time span, the study says, the employment picture nationwide would be much brighter. In fact, the study forecasts a net gain of more than 130,000 jobs by the turn of the century.

Kenneth Warner, lead author of the study done by a team from the University of Michigan, said lost tobacco revenues would get re-invested in new jobs.

"When people stop spending money on one thing, the money does not simply disappear; it is spent elsewhere," Warner said.

For example, the researchers said about half of the tobacco dollars spent by consumers in Michigan is exported to the six tobacco states. If nothing was spent on tobacco in Michigan, the study said, the money instead would go to savings or to goods and services generated within Michigan.

But the tobacco institute, which speaks for the industry, claims the job loss would be closer to half a million.

"Economic theory is fine for Ken Warner, but when it comes down to groups of people who are in a position to lose their jobs, I operate in the real world, not in some economic ivory tower," said Walker Merryman of the Tobacco Institute.

Kicking the habit

In another JAMA report, a committee of doctors urged family practitioners to pay as much attention to a patient's tobacco habits as they do to vital signs and to talk with patients about smoking and how and when to quit.

Fiore said more than 420,000 people in the United States die each year from smoking.

"At least 70 percent of smokers see a physician each year (and) 70 percent of smokers report that they want to quit," the committee wrote in the Journal. But only half of smokers were asked about their tobacco habits by their doctors, and fewer were given advice on quitting.

Another study found about 88 percent of non-smokers are exposed to second-hand smoke, which is believed to increase the risk of lung cancer and other diseases.

The guidelines on quitting smoking, drawn up by a special expert panel for the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, say in most cases nicotine gum or a nicotine patch can double the chances of successfully quitting smoking.

CNN Correspondent Jeff Levine, the Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• Ten more states expected to sue tobacco industry - April 23, 1996
• Philip Morris shunned safer cigarette, group says - April 23, 1996
• More states may join tobacco suits - March 25, 1996
• Cigarette maker settles with 5 states - March 15, 1996
• Tobacco company offers settlement in nicotine lawsuit - March 13, 1996

Related sites:

• Tobacco-Related Internet Resources
• American Heart Association

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