Too Much Smoke in Sacramento

The tobacco industry is now spending huge sums of money to influence state and local elected officials. No surprise there, in light of the fact that a long-term effort to restrict smoking in the California workplace is gathering momentum.

This state still represents a huge market for cigarettes, even as the percentage of smokers statewide continues to shrink. That’s why the tobacco industry’s big guns are trained on AB 13, the proposed comprehensive statewide ban on smoking in the workplace. They’re trying to counter it with AB 996, a patchwork of meaningless and burdensome changes supported by tobacco lobbyists. Cigarette manufacturers are worried. And when the tobacco industry is worried, it spends lots of money--$7.6 million to influence state and local elected officials in just the last two years, according to a report from UC San Francisco.

The tobacco industry spends twice as much on California lawmakers as it spends per member of Congress. In the 1991-92 session, for example, California’s legislators received contributions, on average, of $10,402 each; Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) was the largest recipient, reaping $221,367. All that makes the tobacco industry the second-largest source of state campaign funds, after the California Medical Assn. Yet the health risks of cigarette smoking are clear and grave, despite the industry’s public relations smoke screen and its generosity in political contributions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s report in January, documenting the risks of cigarette smoke even to nonsmokers, explicitly puts tobacco in the same category as asbestos and other deadly carcinogens. State lawmakers have long assumed a clear responsibility to prevent involuntary exposure to carcinogens. Why should tobacco continue to be in a separate--and privileged--category?

All of which raises a troubling question: Does money buy just about anything in Sacramento? State lawmakers must prove that is not the case and that nobody--no matter how well-heeled--can deflect this state from sound public health policy. Passing AB 13 without further delay--and burying AB 996--would be a heartening sign of political integrity.