BOSTON (AP) -- The multibillion-dollar 1998 national tobacco pact has failed to turn back a torrent of cigarette advertising placed in magazines and aimed at children, a study concluded.
"What surprises me is the sheer gall of the tobacco industry in general: their willingness to continue to find ways to get around the very agreement they entered into," said former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, who signed the pact. He is now president of Common Cause, a citizen's lobbying group.
The study, being published in Thursday's The New England Journal of Medicine, heightens recent questions about the effectiveness of the pact. Just 5 percent of state funds from the agreement are paying for smoking prevention, according a study by the National Conference of State Legislatures released Saturday.
The study by two Boston-based researchers says that cigarette makers have kept up a high level of spending for magazine ads targeted at middle- and high school-age children. It says that last year, magazine ads for cigarette brands popular with teen-agers reached 82 percent of them. That percentage was down from 88 percent in 1999, but the study's authors said it was still way too high.
"Our findings suggest that the tobacco settlement was a total failure in terms of protecting kids from cigarette advertising," said study co-author Dr. Michael Siegel, a public health specialist at Boston University.
Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids, said the study shows that "the tobacco industry has succeeded in circumventing the primary goal of ... the agreement." He co-wrote an accompanying editorial.
Ellen Merlo, a spokeswoman for Philip Morris U.S.A. tobacco company, said the agreement had worked to some degree. "The overall profile of tobacco has been dramatically reduced in this country," she said.
In the wake of the pact, Philip Morris removed ads from more than 50 publications. However, Merlo said industry standards are needed so that all cigarette makers work under the same guidelines.
Tobacco opponents said more legal action and more federal regulatory authority are needed to help the tobacco agreement fulfill its promise. Several states have already said they would sue R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., contending it has violated its promise to stop marketing to youngsters.
Forty-six states signed it the $206 billion settlement, and four other states settled separately for an additional $40 billion.
