The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #71720

Amy N. Fairweather, JD, Trauma Foundation, San Francisco General Hospital, Building 1, Room 300, San Francisco, CA 94110, (415)821-8209, amyf@tf.org and James F. Mosher, JD, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 6062 Graham Hill Road, Suite B, Felton, CA 95018.

Tobacco litigation had a profound impact on tobacco control policy. It brought to light internal tobacco company documents that demonstrated the industry’s deceptive marketing tactics and deliberate efforts to obfuscate scientific findings. These discoveries led to large settlements by the industry to public entities, in turn causing significant increases in tobacco retail prices, and provided an impetus at the state and local level to address tobacco control policies. Alcohol policy faces many of the same obstacles experienced in tobacco control. The alcohol industry has a powerful lobby which has made alcohol policy reform difficult or impossible through the political process, particularly at the state and federal levels. It engages in deceptive marketing practices often targeting young people. Like tobacco, alcohol is an addictive product with high external costs to society, and many of the public health remedies applicable to tobacco have promise for reducing alcohol problems. These similarities suggest that lessons learned from tobacco litigation may present important opportunities for alcohol policy. This paper will review tobacco litigation theories and examine whether and how they might be applied to alcohol policy.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to:
• List potential legal theories which were used in tobacco litigation and which may effectively be applied to alcohol policy.
• Develop alcohol control policy goals which may be achieved through litigation.
• Evaluate current alcohol policy research in the litigation context.

Keywords: Alcohol, Tobacco Litigation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.