APCO Associates
(Global public relations company; specializes in "grass roots) Retained by PM to organize the front group TASSC, (The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition")APCO Associates (Worldwide) is a "global communication consultancy" specilalizing in "influencing decisionmakers and shaping public opinion by crafting compelling messages and recruiting effective allies." Philip Morris hired APCO to organize the front group TASSC (The Advancement of Sounce Science Coalition) in October, 1993 to help fight public health efforts to control ETS that occurred in the wake of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ruling that secondhand tobacco smoke was a Group A human carcinogen. APCO recommended that PM form a European TASSC group to do the following: "Preempt unilateral action against the industry." PM also hired APCO to manage a massive national effort aimed at altering the American juducial system to be more hostile to product liability suits ("Tort Reform"). Tort Reform was an internal corporate program of Philip Morris. the industry paid an international public relations firm called APCO Associates almost $1 million in 1995 to implement behind-the-scenes tort reform efforts. APCO's job was to create chapters of "grassroots" citizens' groups called Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALAs).2047648299/8307 The previous document also shows the tobacco industry alone budgeted $21.8 million to fund the tort reform effort in the single year of 1995.