26 Leading Health Groups Call on Drug Stores and Other Retailers to Follow CVS’s Example and End Tob

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 26, 2014

CONTACTS:

Peter Hamm, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 202-296-5469

Julia Cartwright, Legacy®, 202-454-5596

Gregg Tubbs, American Lung Association, 202-715-3469

26 Leading Health Groups Call on Drug Stores and Other Retailers

to Follow CVS’s Example and End Tobacco Sales

WASHINGTON, DC – Twenty-six of the nation’s leading public health and medical organizations today issued an open letter calling on drug stores and other retailers to follow the example of CVS Caremark and end the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products.

CVS announced earlier this month that by October 1, it would stop selling tobacco products at its more than 7,600 stores throughout the United States.

"CVS Caremark is absolutely right: The sale of tobacco products – the number one cause of preventable death and disease – is fundamentally inconsistent with a commitment to improving health,” the letter states.

"As we observe the 50^th Anniversary of the landmark 1964 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, the science on tobacco is unequivocal and inescapable. Tobacco products are uniquely lethal and addictive. They rob us of 480,000 American lives each year, sicken millions more and cost the nation at least $289 billion annually in healthcare expenses and other economic losses.”

The full text of the letter and the list of signatory groups follow. View the letter with logos.

Open Letter to America’s Retailers, Especially Those with Pharmacies

From Leading Public Health and Medical Organizations

February 26, 2014

As organizations committed to ending the tobacco epidemic in the United States, we applaud the bold decision by CVS Caremark to eliminate the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in all its stores. We urge other retailers, especially those with pharmacies, to move quickly to end tobacco sales in their stores. CVS Caremark is absolutely right: The sale of tobacco products – the number one cause of preventable death and disease – is fundamentally inconsistent with a commitment to improving health.

As we observe the 50^th Anniversary of the landmark 1964 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, the science on tobacco is unequivocal and inescapable. Tobacco products are uniquely lethal and addictive. They rob us of 480,000 American lives each year, sicken millions more and cost the nation at least $289 billion annually in healthcare expenses and other economic losses.

The latest Surgeon General’s report also underscored that tobacco use is a pediatric epidemic – 90 percent of adult smokers start by age 18 or earlier, and 5.6 million children alive today will die prematurely of smoking-caused disease unless all segments of our society join together to take strong action.

No corporation truly devoted to saving lives – like the nation’s pharmacies are – can continue to simultaneously reap billions in profits from products that kill nearly half of the people who use them. Neither can any corporation committed to the well-being of our nation’s children.

CVS Caremark’s decision was met with cheers from their customers and the public at large because it is simply the right thing to do. We urge other retailers, especially those with pharmacies, to put our nation’s children and health before tobacco profits and move quickly to end tobacco sales. Such action would reduce the availability and marketing of tobacco products, accelerate progress in reducing tobacco use and ultimately help end the tobacco epidemic for good.

American Association for Respiratory Care

American Association for Cancer Research

American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery

American Academy of Pediatrics

American College of Cardiology

American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

American Lung Association

American Public Health Association

American Society of Clinical Oncology

American Thoracic Society

Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids

Cancer Prevention and Treatment Fund

CASA Columbia

Legacy

LIVESTRONG

Lung Cancer Alliance

National Consumers League

National Association of City and County Health Officials

National Latino Alliance for Health Equity

National Physicians Alliance

North American Quitline Consortium

Oncology Nursing Society

Partnership for Prevention

Smoking Cessation Leadership Center

Trust for American’s Health