A public health expert and other prominent speakers deplored Philip Morris' latest move to entice young girls to smoke: the "Woman Thing" music campaign where girls get "free" CD's by buying two packs of Virginia Slims cigarettes. At a news conference held today, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, President of the American Council on Science and Health, urged "Young women of America, let Philip Morris know you are too smart to fall for their tactics! And Americans in general demand that the Congress protect the interests of public health, not those of the Industry."
Grace Mirabella, founder of Mirabella magazine and former editor of Vogue, and Dr. William G. Cahan, senior attending surgeon at Memorial Sloan®¢Kettering Cancer Center, joined Dr. Whelan in speaking out against Philip Morris and the "Woman Thing" music campaign. Award-winning songwriter and performer Leslie Nuchow, who recently turned down a tempting recording contract from Philip Morris, was the press conference's musical guest.
In her statement to young women, imploring them to say "no" to the "Woman Thing" CDs, Dr. Whelan counseled, "Do not let Philip Morris rob you of your independence by entrapping you with a lethal, addictive habit where freedom no longer exists."
Dr. Whelan also called on the U.S. Congress to reject any proposed deal that would protect the cigarette companies. Members of Congress, the attorneys general of over two dozen states, and others are currently contemplating offering a new and succulent deal to the tobacco industry a deal that would grant the industry immunity from lawsuits in return for payments into a fund.
In her remarks Dr. Whelan emphasized that "Congress should reject a deal which grants immunity to cigarette companies, as that would only allow them to continue, accountable to no one, their insidious marketing of a product that is deadly when used as intended. Congress should, for once, let the cigarette industry walk on the same legal grounds as all other American corporations."
"As a woman, the mother of a teenage daughter, and a public health professional, I am appalled to see deadly, life-destroying products marketed to young women," said Dr. Whelan. The cigarette companies, she added, "are literally selling death and disability."
