Tobacco Documents Online

Copyright 1993 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., All rights reserved. ABC NEWS SHOW: WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH PETER JENNINGS MAY 13, 1993 LENGTH: 3864 words BODY: ANNOUNCER: From ABC, this is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. PETER JENNINGS: Even a hint of inflation was enough to rattle Wall Street a bit. The Dow Jones Industrials lost about 34 points today to close at 3,447, and the trading was heavy. In a moment, we'll have the other news. American Airlines tells its passengers, "Fasten your seatbelts and put away your computers". In our report on Medicine and Money tonight, should there be a new tax on tobacco products? And why so many people in Colorado have fallen in love with a bunch of losers. [Commercial break] PETER JENNINGS: In Bosnia Herzegovina today, another cease-fire which never materialized. In the southwestern city of Mostar, Croatian troops keep up their offensive against the city's Muslims. UN' military observers from Spain are patrolling the streets, but all they're able to do is to watch and listen. The government in Britain says it certainly looks as if somebody has been bugging the private conversations of Prince Charles and Princess Diana and leaking them to the press. But who is doing the bugging? A number of British tabloids say today it's British intelligence. The government says that's ridiculous. When we come back, Medicine and Money - how fair is a new tax on tobacco? [Commercial break] PETER JENNINGS: In Washington today, more than a thousand tobacco farmers from North Carolina held a rally outside the Capitol. "Don't raise taxes on cigarettes, " was their message. "Our jobs are on the line": President Clinton is considering raising the cigarette tax by as much as $2 a pack. The money would help pay for his health care package. In our regular look at Medicine and Money, this question - would a cigarette tax be unfair to tobacco farmers? ABC's Walter Rodgers is in North Carolina. WALTER RODGERS: Betty and John Voilmer have been farming tobacco most of their lives and spring has never looked so bleak. They are worried that higher cigarette taxes will' drive down demand for their crop even further. Cigarette manufacturers already import 25 percent of their tobacco from overseas because it is less expensive. A higher tax would make imported tobacco even more attractive. '

JOHN VOLLMER / TOBACCO FAIt1VIER: Well, it forces companies to seek cheaper tobacco in order to keep the price of cigarettes down. And they find that from people overseas. So our jobs as a grower are going to be exported to Brazil and Zimbabwe. WALTER RODGERS: The tobacco industry claims a $1-per-pack tax increase would ultimately put a third of the nation's 62,000 tobacco -farmers out of work and cost 27,000 farm laborers their jobs. And those selling farm equipment fear a regional recession. MARJORIE LANGSTON / FARM EQUIPMENT DEALER: Tobacco is our main income in this county and surrounding areas. If the tax is put on at $1 or $2 per pack, it will be a disaster through here. WALTER RODGERS: Even though demand is down, tobacco remains the most profitable crop in the country per acre. Farmers say they can't switch crops without a drastic loss of income. BETTY VOLLMER L TOBACCO FARMER: An acre of tobacco you would have a gross income of about $5,000. On an acre of wheat you would have a gross income of about $200. WALTER RODGERS: Because of the price, you can make a good living on 75 acres of tobacco, the average-size farm in North Carolina. But it takes 1,000 acres to make a comparable living,growing grain crops, and farms that size don't exist in tobacco country. The few growers who have switched to other crops often find farmers in other parts of the country, have the fruit and vegetable markets locked up. JOHN VOLLMER: Through efforts to diversify I realize how much time it takes to learn how to do these things. I'm a good tobacco grower and I'm a very poor vegetable grower. WALTER RODGERS: Many families have been growing tobacco on these farms since the Civil War, and' these farmers fear any increase in the cigarette tax would likely render their skills irrelevant and their family farms obsolete. Walter Rodgers, ABC News, Bunn, North Carolina. PETER JENNINGS: There is another view of a cigarette tax. First of all, it is designed to do more than pay for health care reform. The idea is also to save health care dollars by discouraging people from smoking. And smoking costs the rest of us a lot of money. We asked ABC's Beth Nissen how much. BETH NISSEN: Christian Frye smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for 48 years. She has chronic emphysema. She wants cigarettes taxed, even banned, and has no sympathy for what that might do to tobacco farmers. CHRISTIAN FRYE: They should not grow tobacco to kill people just for money. BETH NISSENt In terms of money, tobacco -related illnesses run up health care costs of $21 billion a year. NURSE: How are you feeling?

CHRISTIAN FRYE: Short of breath. - BETH NISSENt This year alone Christian's hospital bills total almost half a million dollars. According to the government's Office of Technology Assessment, smoking-related cancers, lung and heart diseases cost American businesses an additional $47 billion a year in lost worker productivity and lost workers. Smoking kills 475;000 Americans a year. DR. JOHN LYNCH [ AMERICAN' CANCER SOCIETY: Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of premature death in this country. BETH NISSEN: And Americans pay to prevent more deaths. This public-service ad is part of a $135 million federal anti-smoking campaign. Yet what most Americans do not know is that they also pay for the ads that promote smoking. One billion dollars a year in cigarette advertising is tax deductible. SEN. TOM HARKIN / [D] IOWA: We subsidize the advertising of tobacco, a product that kills people. BETH NISSEN: A $2-a-pack cigarette tax would bring in as much as $100 billion in five years and save hundreds of billions more in future costs. In states that have raised taxes, which raises the price per pack, tobacco use has fallen, especial'ly among the young. Public health officials say the ultimate saving could be as many as two million lives and incalculable suffering. Beth Nissen, ABC News, Washington. PETER JENNINGS: One other item about smoking and health. A judge in Mississippi has ruled for the first time that cigarettes are so dangerous that manufacturers cannot escape liability even if smokers know the risks. As the ruling,comes from a state judge, however, other courts around the country are not obliged to follow suit.