Tanning Wrap Up – Lessons From the Tobacco Industry

What Can We Learn From Tobacco and the Smoking Industry?

Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA)

The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) is a 1998 agreement between the four major US tobacco companies and the Attorneys General for 46 states. The case settled the tobacco companies’ Medicaid suits and exempted them from private tort liability caused by tobacco use. In exchange, the companies agreed to modify marketing and advertising techniques and to pay states for medical costs that resulted from smoking-related illnesses. Money also funded anti-smoking groups, like the American Legacy Foundation, which funded the aforementioned The Truth campaign. Lastly, the settlement broke up tobacco groups like the Tobacco Institute, the Center for Indoor Air Research, and the Council for Tobacco Research. In total, the tobacco companies agreed to pay at least $206 billion over 25 years.

There is lots of criticism of the MSA. In 2004 in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Stephen A. Schroeder wrote: "Although U.S. smoking rates are slowly declining, progress toward that end [decreasing smoking] would be faster if federal policymaking matched both the rigor of the scientific evidence against tobacco use and the resolve of antitobacco advocates."[1] The National Cancer Institute said the MSA was an "opportunity lost to curb cigarette use."[2]

So is a settlement like the MSA enough? While there are some positive components of the settlement, there are also some areas where much room is left to be desired. One of the desired outcomes of the litigation against the tobacco companies was to reduce the power of the industry and its influence and grip over current and potential smokers. However, the settlement does not fully achieve this. In order to truly enact meaningful change and to make tobacco companies change policies, the settlement should have not let those companies off the hook in terms of Medicaid lawsuits and private tort liability.

Perhaps this is where tobacco litigation went wrong. Indoor tanning is often compared to tobacco. As Representatives Maloney and Dent said, indoor tanning is the cigarette of our time. Last time, tobacco litigation was incomplete and deficient. This time, it doesn’t have to be.