Letters: Tobacco, Trade Agreements and Public Health

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Re "Why Is Obama Caving on Tobacco?," by Michael R. Bloomberg (Op-Ed, Aug. 23):

I must first note the mayor's enormous influence on tobacco control. Under his leadership, New York City has become a peerless leader in efforts to end the preventable damage and death caused by tobacco use.

The Obama administration has a long history of tackling the tobacco epidemic, including the landmark Tobacco Control Act, expanded cessation coverage and new investments in community-based prevention.

The United States government's proposal on tobacco in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations represents a step forward for public health in the international trade community. It would provide health authorities a new opportunity to voice their views, and critically, it recognizes that tobacco is a product like no other with an unparalleled effect on human health because it is addictive, always harmful to health, and the single most preventable cause of death worldwide.

BILL CORR
Deputy Secretary, Dept.
of Health
and Human Services
Washington, Aug. 24, 2013

To the Editor:

I applaud the contributions in tobacco control by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York and President Obama. The mayor's efforts have improved air quality and curbed youth smoking, and Obamacare intelligently factors individual responsibility into insurance premiums for smokers.

Together, the president's 2009 increase in the cigarette tax and the mayor's leadership have resulted in cigarette prices in New York City that are among the highest in the country.

I appreciate Mayor Bloomberg's disappointment regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and also understand the difficult realities to reach consensus in the trade agreement.

Controlling the global epidemic of tobacco use is an international responsibility that other world leaders must also champion. It is my hope that the leadership of the mayor and the president can be unified to resolve remaining domestic tobacco concerns first: banning menthol in cigarettes, regulating electronic cigarettes and achieving the full use of graphic warning labels to end tobacco's deadly toll in America.

JOHN MAA
Oakland, Calif., Aug. 24, 2013

The writer, a surgeon, is chairman of the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program at the University of California.

To the Editor:

Concerning the position of American business and agriculture with regard to public health, the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and trade agreements in general:

We support efforts to improve public health, but we oppose inserting provisions in trade agreements in the name of public health that are unnecessary and unjustified and could open the door to measures by our trading partners that threaten American exports and jobs.

For half a century, administrations have maintained that in trade agreements the United States remains free to safeguard the national and public interest, including public health. To change their carefully crafted language in ways that could cause harm would be a mistake.

When science and evidence support a nondiscriminatory regulatory action, it already has a safe harbor in our trade agreements and under sovereign United States law. To imply otherwise is to create problems where none exist.

CALMAN J. COHEN
President, Emergency
Committee for American Trade
Washington, Aug. 23, 2013

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