Press Release: ACS CAN Fuels California’s Yes on Prop. 29 Campaign with New Donation
Friday, May 25, 2012
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Nicole Bender or Steven Weiss
American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Phone: 202-661-5773 or 202-661-5711
Email: nicole.bender@cancer.org or
steve.weiss@cancer.org
American Cancer
Society Cancer Action Network Fuels California’s Yes on Prop. 29 Campaign with
New Donation
Despite Additional Funds, Big
Tobacco Continues to Outspend
Yes on 29 Campaign by Four to One
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
–
May 25, 2012 -- The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN),
the advocacy affiliate of the American
Cancer Society,today announced an
additional $2.5 million donation to help pass the June 5 ballot initiative that
will save lives, invest in groundbreaking medical research and keep kids from
smoking. ACS CAN and the American Cancer
Society California Division have now contributed a combined total of nearly
$7.25 million to the campaign, an amount that is still dwarfed by the $40
million and counting that Big Tobacco has poured into a campaign of lies and
deception about Prop. 29.
"We can't come close to matching Big Tobacco's
largesse, but we have the truth, and the voices of hundreds of thousands of
Californians who have been touched by chronic diseases like cancer, on our
side,”
said John R. Seffrin, PhD., CEO of ACS CAN and the American Cancer Society.
"We want to make sure that Californians see
through the tobacco industry’s smokescreen: Prop 29 will fund life-saving cancer
research right here in California and it will save lives.”
Prop 29, an initiative on the June 5 primary ballot, will
raise the cost of a pack of cigarettes by $1 and dedicate those new funds to
lifesaving research on cancer and other tobacco-related diseases and smoking
cessation efforts. Written by the American
Cancer Society in California, the American Heart Association, Western States
Affiliate and the American Lung Association in California, Prop 29 is supported
by the Lance Armstrong Foundation and doctors, scientists and researchers
throughout California. Research shows that raising the cost of cigarettes by
one dollar a pack will save 104,000 lives and stop 228,000 kids from
smoking.
"If you don’t smoke, you don’t pay. It’s that
simple. And this donation will be used to make sure Californians hear that loud
and clear.” said Seffrin. "Yes on 29 saves lives, protects kids, boosts the
state economy and invests in cancer research that will directly benefit
Californians today and for generations to come. We are confident that voters
will make the right choice on June 5.”
ACS CAN, the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of
the American Cancer Society, supports evidence-based policy and legislative
solutions designed to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. ACS CAN works
to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national
priority. ACS CAN gives ordinary people extraordinary power to fight cancer with
the training and tools they need to make their voices heard. For more
information, visit www.acscan.org.
###
Paid for by Yes on 29, American Cancer Society Cancer
Action Network Inc. and American Cancer Society Inc. Ballot Committee. Major
funding by American Cancer Society Inc. and American Cancer Society Cancer
Action Network Inc
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