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Proposal protects tobacco industry
- Tobacco stock analysts and public
health advocates agree that the tobacco industry's proposal to state Attorneys
General would protect tobacco companies. Here is what some have recently
said about the proposal.
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- ''It would definitely be a good thing for the companies,''
- Mary Aronson, tobacco litigation analyst, USA Today 11/16/98
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- "It means relief from the most aggressive and perhaps the most
threatening category of cases against the industry,"
- Martin Feldman, tobacco industry analyst, MS NBC 11/16/98
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- "You are basically eliminating the largest litigation risks that
depress valuations of tobacco stocks."
- Gary Black, analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. , Newsday 11/16/98
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- ''It's a short-term victory, but there's a lot more to come.''
- Jack Maxwell, securities analyst with Davenport & Co, USA Today
11/16/98
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- "It is not a settlement, it is a partnership agreement between
the tobacco companies and the attorneys general that allows Big Tobacco
to continue its nefarious business as usual,''
- John Garrison, CEO of the American Lung Association, Reuters 11/16/98
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- ''The deal would leave the Marlboro Man in the saddle and the tobacco
companies in the driver's seat,''
- Jeffrey Barg, president of Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Pennsylvania,
Cincinnati Post 11/17/98
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- "sweetheart deal" that "would let the industry get off
cheap, enable the companies to keep secret many of the incriminating documents,
interfere with local enforcement actions and suits against Big Tobacco
and tie the hands of future attorneys general."
- Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, Cincinnati Post 11/17/98
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- "terrible for taxpayers and not good for public health."
- Bill Godshall, executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, Washington
Post 11/14/98
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- "I think this is a very bad deal for California,''
- Stan Glantz, health advocate, San Francisco Chronicle 11/17/98
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- ''It's going to be written in history as a triumph of PR,''
- Richard Daynard, chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project
at Northeastern University School of Law , USA Today 11/16/98
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