Three national health organizations want Canada's premiers to push for initiatives to reduce smoking during settlement negotiations with major tobacco companies, years after provinces sued to recoup health-care costs.
In an open letter, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Lung Association and Heart and Stroke Foundation say governments should make cutting tobacco use a top priority in talks that began four years ago as part of the provinces' lawsuits seeking a collective $500 billion in damages.
The health organizations say at least 10 per cent of the money from a settlement should go toward long-term funding, independent of government, to slash smoking. They are also calling for a ban on tobacco promotion by the industry and measures that would require the defendants to make additional payments if targets to reduce tobacco use are not met. And they want the companies to publicly disclose millions of pages of internal documents.
A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., one of the companies contacted about any potential initiatives to cut tobacco use, said in an email he could not comment while mediation is ongoing. He saidmultiple diseases and 16 types of cancer, including cancer of the lungs, throat, esophagus and pancreas, are associated with tobacco use.
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