The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

The Master Settlement Agreement that resolved litigation against the tobacco companies provided a substantial amount of money to the settling states (over $200 billion during the first 25 years), created the American Legacy Foundation, imposed some restrictions on tobacco advertising, and made tobacco industry documents widely available. In many ways, the MSA included the positive aspects of the earlier defeated "global settlement" with the tobacco industry. Perhaps the greatest disappointment from the MSA is that the public health community did not effectively mobilize to capture a substantial portion of the funds for tobacco control. The tobacco industry is now attempting to use the MSA as an argument against tobacco tax increases and other forms of tobacco control. Creation of the Legacy Foundation and the release of tobacco industry documents were positive developments that have had broad impact on tobacco control. The challenge in the future will be to see that the tobacco control activities started by the MSA continue and that the industry does not succeed in using the MSA to block other tobacco control policies.