Recent discoveries prove Wisconsin resident's lungs are not the only things endangered by the smoldering reach of tobacco industry.
In a report released Wednesday, the UW-Madison Comprehensive Cancer Center found the tobacco industry has had a significant influence over Wisconsin's public health polices. The 100-page study details the influence the tobacco industry has wielded in state politics in past years, and how their policy agenda has contributed to the degeneration of the overall public health in Wisconsin.
David Ahrens, research program manager for the study, stated the industry's ability to overpower state legislative issues stems from the multitude of industry supporters within Wisconsin.
\There are over 25,000 people licensed to sell tobacco [in Wisconsin], and that makes for a political force that wants cheap tobacco available to all populations, particularly to kids,"" Ahrens said.
In preparing the report, the UW Monitoring and Evaluation Program analyzed more than 1,000 previously secret tobacco industry documents, news archives, and policy reports made public by a lawsuit brought by the state.
Through examination of the files it was determined that the Phillip Morris tobacco company is the most dominant tobacco corporation in Wisconsin politics, spending $1.9 million on lobbying in the last three legislative sessions, and donating considerably large sums of money to political campaigns.
It was resolved that between 1997 and 2001 $7.2 million had been spent on attempts to block both local communities' goals for smoke-free public places and legislative attempts to restrict the sale of cigarettes to children.
When contacted, representatives for Phillip Morris (Altria) said they did not know of the report.
The study also revealed the four major objectives in the tobacco industry's policy agenda used for the past 30 years.
The four objectives, blamed for Wisconsin having the highest rate of illegal tobacco sales in the country, involve keeping cigarette taxes low, limiting regulation and enforcement of laws prohibiting sale of cigarettes to youths, opposing clean indoor air ordinances and policies and attempting to pre-empt local authority to regulate cigarette sales. The membership of this ""political force"" is said to range from organizations representing restaurants, taverns, grocers and convenience stores.
Ed Lump, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, said the actions of the WRA are solely dependent on the attitudes of its members.
""We believe that the restaurants know their customers best, and that they're in the best position to determine what their customers will or will not tolerate,"" he said. We support what our members want us to do in state and local government, and nothing more than that.""
