Tobacco Documents Online

... ! 0 • '1?/01/99 14 :~3 REFwE Al1STRAL I A PiL 613 69616?3 ~ REHAPJIE DATE . JANUARY 12TH, 1989 TRANSCRIPT OF BROADCAST ITEM ON : --------------------------------- 3L0 AM 8.15AM JANUARY 12TH, 1989 Rehem. Australia Pty Ltd ( 2%221 Park Street, South Melbourne, Vio. 3205 Telephone (03) 899 6077 Fax 69e 1673 INTERVIEW WITH GARY MILLER, US TOBACCO INSTITUTE ASSISTANT PRESIDENT, REGARDING THE INSTITUTE'S CAMPAIGN WHICH CLAIMS SMORERS ARE VICTIMS OF HARASSMENT AND DISCRIMINATI-ON : tk*~r4k~t~tAir**A'*7t* PRESENTER: In America, smokers are celebrating a special anniversary this week. It's twenty-five years since the United States Surgeon General iss,led the first warnings that smoking was a health he ard. Since then, pressure has been mounting on smokers dnd the tobacco industry. But now the tobacco industry is trying to hit back, with a new campaign claiming that smokers are victims of harassment and discrimination. Our reporter in New York, Martin Dobell. REPORTER - MARTIN DOBELL: The cigarette manufacturers of course can't advertise on television, radio or the newspapers. That's part of the harassment. But the Tobacco Institute, their lobby group, can and has. The Tobacco Institute took out full page newspaper advertisements around the United States to declare, Enough is Enough. They complain the industry is overly restricted by legislation and overtaxed. They also claim their national survey of fifteen hundred adults shows a N0.269'" P010

• REHAME • 0 11 P011 °— - Rehune Austalls Pty Ltd ~ 21¢2Z1 Rsr4c Street, South Metboume, Vio. 3205~ Telephone (03) 699 6077 Fsx 696 1573 REPORTER CONT/D: ----------------- majority of Americans do not support tougher anti- smoking measures. These days in the United States, smokers can't light up on most planei, trains, bUises or •taxis. In New York there's even a].egal requirement for smoking and non-smoking areas in the_*rorkplace and restaurants. As well, over the last twenty-five years, a succession of Surgeons General have -inereased the warnings. Last year, the incumbent declared that smoking was as addictive as heroin. Assistant President of the Tobacco Ifttitute, Gary Miller. GARY MILLER - TOBACCO INSTITUTE ASSISTANT PRESIDENT with respect to the Surgeon General's warnings, they've been in effect now for nearly quarter of a century. And the American public „has never been so well entertained by a piece of information or an event as the Surgeon General's warnings. In fact, polls show that ninety-five per cent of the American public knows what the Surgeon General says regarding cigarette smoking. So it boils down to this afterwards. You know what the Surgeon General says. As an American, as an individual with the freedom of choice, you have that right, you have that opportunity to make the decision on whether or.not you want to smoke. No one's forcing you to. So regardless of what the Surgeon General says, you know about it, make that decision. That's the American way. Freedom of choice is what it boils down to.

• s 0 •12i01i99 14:33 REhtAME hQ. 269 ~ PQ112 Rehune Australia t+ty 1.19 219-?21 Park Street, South M.Iboume, ViC. 3205 Tetephone (03) d98 6077 Fox 696 16T3 ; REPORTER: Gary Miller claims there is official discrimination against smokers; that they're being harassed by a vocal minority who are breaking the US Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech. MILLER: The Surgeon General and*his counterparts have a dream of a smoke free society by the year 2000. In their efforts to achieve that dream, they're using every...every step possible by way of treating smokers unfairly, and particularly making them feel like second class citizens or pariahs on society. That's not the case at all. Like I said before, one third of the adult American public smokes. They comprise every comp...part of American society in terms of economics and education and culture, and they shouldn't be made to feel like second class citizens simply because they smoke. They're as economically contributive and viable to our society as the non-smokers are. REPORTER: That may all be true, but it appears to be a losing battle. There's no 'evidence that the Tobacco Institute's Enough is Enough campaign is gaining any popular momentum of its own. And smokers are giving up; on average there are three hundred thousand fewer smokers each year in the United States, suggesting that Mr Miller's vocal minority may well soon be a vocal majority anyway. PRESENTER: Martin Dobell in New York. REI-IAP'E A!}57Raq- I A PiL 613 69616?3 ~ ~ c7 0 ~ 0 -a ~ 0 ~t# END OF S EGl4ENT