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T he P ortland O bserver • J une 25, 1997
Closed-door deal shows tobacco’s political muscle
The closed-door tobacco deal is
igniting a fierce public battle for the
hearts and minds o f the key players
who w ill determine its fate - Presi
dent Clinton and Congress - as c rit
ics uncovered m ultiple loopholes
"W e need to toughen this deal,”
Sen Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said to
day. "There’ s going to be some major
rewriting on this agreement.”
Interviewed on A B C ’ s "G o o d
Morning Am erica,” Wyden said he
is concerned tobacco compan ies w i 11
step up efforts to recruit new smok
ers in developing countries. " I 'm
going to fight very, very hard to
make sure that these multinational
tobacco companies don’t target kids
in Bangladesh and Bangkok in or
der to pay Medicaid bills in Bend,
Ore and Bangor, Me.,” he said.
Fine print in the 70-page deal sets
strict limits on the Food and Drug
Administration’s ability to curb nico
tine, so strict that former FDA chief
David Kessler, who advises Clinton
and some lawmakers on the deal,
quickly demanded changes.
"T h ere are a lot o f hurdles for the
FDA, some impossible burdens,”
Kessler said Sunday on N B C ’ s
"M e e t the Press.” "T h is seems to
be a step backward.”
Clinton, for his part, said Sunday
he would be evaluating the deal to
make sure it would not undermine
public health efforts, and suggested
the agreement could be subject to
change
" I hope none o f us are reviewing
it w ith a view toward either saying
we are going to embrace it or k ill it
and there is no other option,” he
said.
L ik e w is e , R epublican House
Speaker Newt Gingrich told report
ers Sunday in his Georgia district:
" U n til we have time to have the
experts look at it and review it and
have hearings on it, I don’t think
any body shouldjum p to any conclu
sions No secret group can go o ff and
hide, come up with their deal and
then tell the Congress pass this or
nothing.”
A close reading o f the deal shows
that cigarette makers even secured a
partial way out o f m ultim illion -d ol-
lar penalties that proponents said
would force tobacco companies to
cut teen-age smoking. I f companies
prove they made a good-faith effort
to cut teen smoking by 30 percent in
five years and 60 percent in 10 years,
they could get 75 percent reduction
in the fine assessed for failing to
meet the goals.
"T h is industry is getting o ff for
pennies on the dollar,” angry C ali
fornia anti-tobacco activist Stanton
Glantz wrote fellow tobacco foes
The anxiety isn’ t confined to
health advocates. Big Tobacco’ s
chiefs are girding for expected law
suits by shareholders once their
boards formally approve last week’ s
settlement, a top tobacco o fficia l told
The Associated Press.
I he board o f Philip M orris, which
must pay $6 billion o f the $ 10 billion
dow n payment ifCongress approves
the $368 b illion deal, is to take up
the contentious settlement Wednes
day. O f the $10 b illion initial pay
ment. $7 b illion is to go to the states
and $3 b illion to the federal govern
ments - all under a mechanism that
would be set up by Congress.
" H a lf o f the equity o f that com
pany goes out the door the day that
check's w ritten,” said the tobacco
official, speaking on condition o f
anonymity. Even i f the stock drop
that day is only temporary, ‘ ’you can
bet there w ill be shareholder law
suits say ing ‘ you didn’t protect my
investment.’ ”
The proposed agreement would
settle 40 state lawsuits seeking re
covery o f Medicaid funds spent treat
ing sick smokers. In return for pay
ments up to $15 b illio n a year and
curbs on tobacco advertising and
manufacturing, the companies won
a ban on class-action lawsuits, a $5
billion annual cap on actual dam
ages they would pay to sick smokers
and exemption from punitive dam
ages for past wrongdoing
Attorneys for the 40 states had
insisted they w ill not drop their law
suits until Congress ratifies the settle
ment, to keep pressure on tobacco
companies. But in a turnaround Sun
day. Mississippi Attorney General
Michael Moore said he would at
tempt to postpone his July 7 trial so
he could lobby Congress to approve
the settlement.
But " i f they tinker w ith it or
make it better for the tobacco com
panies, you know, easier on them,
then certainly we w on’ t settle our
lawsuits, so nothing w ill have been
gained,” he said on "F o x News
Sunday.”
C linton says he w ill base much
o f his decision on how much con
trol FD A gets over tobacco. Under
the agreement, the FD A can lower
nicotine levels to create less-ad
dictive cigarettes - but o nly i f it
proves such reduction w ould cause
a "s ig n ific a n t reduction o f the
health risks” from sm oking, is
technologically feasible and w ould
not create a black market fo r high-
nicotine cigarettes.
It could not ban nicotine for 12
years, and then would have to phase
in a ban over two years to give
Congress time to object
The W hite House is scurrying
to see how such provisions strike
public health activists, even c a ll
ing form er Surgeon General C.
Everett Koop just hours after’ the
agreement was signed Koop, a
longtim e anti-tobacco campaigner,
was skeptical.
Fat gene found
For the first time, scientists have
identified genetic flaws that make
people fat.
One defect showed up in an 8-
year-old girl who weighs nearly 200
pounds. She has already had surgery
on her overburdened legs and
liposuction ju st to help her get
around.
The genetic defects are described
in two reports, each dealing with a
different gene. One report caps an
intensive worldwide search for flaws
in the gene that tells the body how to
make the hormone leptin, while the
other gives a new hint for under
standing the complex process that
controls a person’ s weight.
Experts said the newfound de
fects cause obesity only very rarely
and do not apply to the vast majority
o f fat people.
“ They’ re real landmark papers’’
said Dr. Albert Stunkard o f the U ni
versity o f Pennsylvania School o f
Medicine. But there’ s “ no big public
health or therapeutic message. ...
The average middle-aged, o ver
weight woman is not likely to see
much benefit from this.”
Genes do play an important role
in ordinary human obesity, but that
probably comes from subtle varia
tions in their functioning rather than
major defects like the newfound
mutations, said Rudolph Leibel o f
Rockefeller University.
The new work is presented in
Thursday’ s issue o f the journal Na
ture and the July issue o f the journal
Nature Genetics. The work is re
ported
by
s c ie n tis ts
fro m
Addenbrooke’ s Hospital at Cam
bridge University in England with
collaborators elsewhere.
The case o f the 8-year-old girl who
weighs 190 pounds also includes her
cousin, a 2-year-old boy who tips the
scales at 64 pounds. That is more than
twice as much as most boys that age
weigh. Both children are so heavy
they have trouble walking.
Scientists discovered that both
children have a defect in the gene
that tells fat cells to produce leptin.
Those mutations greatly reduce the
leptin supply.
The two children m ight be helped
by leptin injections, said Arlen Price,
who studies obesity genetics at the
University o f Pennsylvania.
Leptin was first discovered in
mice. Experiments showed it lets
the mouse brain keep tabs on how fat
an animal is. Mice w ith defective
leptin genes became very fat but lost
weight when they got leptin injec
tions.
Those results set o ff an intensive
search for leptin gene flaws in fat
people. None was found until now,
which indicates such defects are very
rare, experts said. But the new work
does show that leptin is important in
regulating body weight in people, as
well as mice.
Everybody inherits tw o copies o f
the leptin gene, one from each par
ent. Both copies were defective in
the children. Each o f their parents
was found to have one bad copy o f
the leptin gene, as well as a normal
copy. They are overweight but not
extremely fat.
The Nature Genetics report deals
with a woman who is only moder
ately overweight in middle age but
who weighed 80 pounds at age 3.
That is more than twice what most
3-year-old girls weigh.
Researchers found defects in both
copies o f her gene for an enzy me
called prohormone convertase I , or
PC I . This substance helps the body
make insulin, among other things.
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