Pubdate: Sunday, 15 November, 1998 Source: Seattle-Times (WA) Copyright: 1998 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://www.seattletimes.com/ Author: James V. Grimaldi, Seattle Times Washington bureau Note: James V. Grimaldi's phone message number is 206-464-8550. His e-mail address is: TOBACCO ACCORD IS AN EXERCISE IN COMPROMISE WASHINGTON - Joe Camel and his cartoon ilk are dead, but Marlboro Man lives. Tobacco ads on billboards, buses and subway cars are banned, but outdoor ads smaller than 14 square feet would be permitted. Cigarette ads in stadiums will be torn down, but specific brands such as Virginia Slims and Winston can sponsor one sporting event a year. If one word summarizes the deal ratified yesterday in New York between attorneys general and Big Tobacco, it is compromise. Unlike the far-reaching - and inevitably unsuccessful - June 1997 agreement, this national settlement worth $206 billion to 30 states is far more modest in its approach to regulating tobacco in the U.S. More than anything, Attorney General Christine Gregoire, who led the negotiating, can say she actually has a national settlement - a seemingly elusive possibility in the balmy days of last summer when Congress summarily dumped the first agreement. It also means an abrupt halt to her lawsuit under way in Seattle. Once the deal is approved by the state and tobacco companies, a superior-court judge must approve a consent decree that would enforce the pact. Gregoire issued a statement that seemed to reflect the exhaustion that accompanied the frenzied pace and long hours of negotiating: "We have finished. We have done the best we can do here." "We have been here negotiating for five months," she said. "It's not perfect, and we didn't get everything that we wanted. But that is so common with settlements." The nation's major tobacco companies - Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Brown & Williamson Tobacco and Lorillard Tobacco - and attorneys general from Washington, California, New York, North Carolina, Colorado, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Pennsylvania - ratified the pact yesterday afternoon in a New York City law office. Twenty-two other attorneys general are reviewing the deal, said Washington attorney-general spokesman Fred Olson. A news conference is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon in Washington, D.C. Attorneys general from at least six states, including New York, are planning to attend, Olson said. Public-Health Groups But notably absent are officials from the public-health groups that first embraced the June 1997 deal and then trashed it as it wended its way through the U.S. Senate. Gregoire, who led these secret talks as her chief deputies prosecuted a lawsuit in King County Superior Court, eagerly marks this settlement with superlatives: At $206 billion, it is the largest lawsuit settlement in history and contains sweeping public-health provisions meant to deter youths from picking up the deadly habit. Filed to recoup the taxpayers' costs of treating sick smokers, the states will not share this amount with the federal government - as would have happened in the earlier deal. Washington state stands to get $4.02 billion between now and 2025 - by far the largest legal settlement in state history and nearly $1 billion more than the state would have gotten under the earlier agreement. If approved by other state attorneys general, those states too would recoup lost Medicaid costs: New York and California would get about $24 billion; smaller states would receive amounts in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Olson said. There are many tradeoffs in the agreement because this scaled-down version was built around the premise that it would not need or get approval from Congress or the White House. Without federal approval, the states could not offer the tobacco industry the limited immunity for class-action suits. In exchange, the states made many concessions. Smaller Than Previous Deal The deal is far less than the $368.5 billion deal cut a year and a half ago because there is no money for the federal government. It also lacks the assent of the tobacco companies to agree to regulation of nicotine by the Food and Drug Administration. The proposed settlement also does not have penalties for tobacco companies if there is no reduction in teen smoking. The so-called "look back" provisions were among the most contentious for the cigarette industry - and some of the most sought-after clauses by the public-health community. But without congressional approval, such penalties would be virtually unenforceable. In place of the broad new quit-smoking programs envisioned under the earlier agreement, tobacco companies agreed to massive spending for similar efforts. Gregoire has secured a promise from tobacco companies to spend $1.45 billion on advertising to persuade youths not to start smoking. And the cigarette industry would spend $250 million in the next decade to create a national foundation to reduce teen smoking. Such programs were castigated by conservatives in Congress as more "big government," but under the states' agreement, the foundation would be private and pay for many of the same functions, such as grants for scientific studies researching factors that influence youth smoking. Other compromises: Cartoon characters are banned from cigarette ads, but human figures are allowed. And in a bow to certain cities and states that didn't want to lose local sporting events, such as car racing, tobacco companies would be permitted to sponsor one event a year for each brand, but tobacco advertising is banned in arenas and sports venues. Also late yesterday, smokeless-tobacco maker U.S. Tobacco, which had settled for $2 million with Washington state in its lawsuit, agreed to pay the 30 states about $100 million over 10 years to warn about the risks of using snuff. Other smokeless-tobacco companies have not settled. - ---