On November 23, 1998, the nation's four largest tobacco companies agreed to pay forty-six states a total of $206 billion and adhere to advertising and marketing restrictions in a negotiated deal that turned out to be the largest civil lawsuit settlement in history. This settlement was a result of dozens of suits filed against the tobacco industry in the 1990s by state attorneys general attempting to recover the health care costs of treating smoking-related illnesses. In many ways, this 1998 settlement was also the outcome of a decades-long effort on the part of public health advocates, antismoking activists, and legislators to regulate tobacco and reduce smoking. Since the U.S. Surgeon General first declared smoking a health risk in 1964, many physicians and public health experts have been involved in a broad campaign against cigarette consumption. The tobacco industry, however, along with many smokers and others who believe that antitobacco activism misdirects.....
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