Regulating a Killer

Hubert H. Humphrey III did Minnesotans quite a service with the $6.6-billion deal last week to settle the state’s suit against cigarette makers for the costs of treating sick smokers. Minnesota’s hard-charging attorney general also extracted concessions with national benefits. But only Congress can do the one thing that will make the most difference in helping smokers to quit and stopping others from starting--authorize the Food and Drug Administration to regulate nicotine.

The Minnesota settlement came just hours before jury deliberations were to begin in the case, filed by the state and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. Having long prided itself for not having paid so much as a penny for smoker’s liability claims, the tobacco industry has now settled four similar state liability suits in less than a year. The $6.6-billion deal is now the third largest court settlement in U.S. history--topped only by the $11.3 billion the industry agreed to pay Florida and the $15.3 billion it will hand over to Texas.

The cigarette makers will pay Minnesota up to $6.1 billion over 25 years, 50% more than the state would have received as part of the $368.5-billion proposed nationwide settlement reached last June between 40 states and the tobacco industry. The two health insurers, which joined the state’s suit, will receive $469 million.

Humphrey could have stopped there. But by pushing further he won provisions that will keep eroding the industry’s economic and legal position nationwide. For the first time, the cigarette makers entered into a court-enforced agreement not to misrepresent the health hazards of smoking. The industry will also fund and maintain depositories for the millions of incriminating documents it was forced it to release--a virtual road map to the industry’s lies and deception on matters such as youth smoking and the addictive nature of nicotine. Other states pursuing similar damage claims, including California, should have a much easier time documenting the industry’s duplicity.

Still, no matter how far-reaching the concessions in Minnesota or how many states collect against the industry, only Congress can permit the FDA to regulate nicotine and additives in all tobacco products. This could include a gradual nicotine reduction. Such a measure could have been part of a national tobacco settlement, but that proposal has bogged down in Congress. A bill to provide just that FDA authorization, by Arizona Sen. John McCain, could come before the full Senate next week. Today, as many of McCain’s Republican colleagues fuss about the bill’s cost and reach, another 3,000 American teens will become smokers; one third of them will eventually die from their habit.