BY JOHN NOLAN
The Associated Press
Ohio and nine other populous states could be giving away too much by signing onto a $206 billion settlement with the tobacco industry and should wait a month to learn the details, anti-smoking activists said Friday.
But Ohio and other states that had committed to the settlement by the tobacco industry-imposed deadline Friday showed no inclination to reconsider.
The tobacco industry indicated Friday that it will sign the civil settlement Monday.
"This is an artificial deadline," Ahron Leichtman, executive director of Citizens for a Tobacco-free Society, said of Friday's deadline for state approvals.
"Who's to say that the tobacco industry wouldn't accept a signed document next week?"
Mr. Leichtman said his group was filing papers in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus asking permission to intervene in Ohio's lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
The request argues that Ohio's negotiations with tobacco companies violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by excluding people with disabilities caused or worsened by tobacco smoke.
Action on Smoking and Health, the legal arm of the nation's anti-smoking movement, said it filed court papers Thursday with courts in the 10 most populous states - California, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Missouri and Illinois - to try to stop those states from approving the tobacco settlement by the noon Friday deadline.
The court filings urged the states to wait 30 days to allow health officials and others time to study the deal.
The delay would ensure that it contains stringent measures to make tobacco companies act to reduce teen smoking, said John Banzhaf, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based organization. Cincinnati City Council unanimously adopted a resolution Wednesday urging Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery to wait at least 30 days to allow time for studying the tobacco deal.
But Ms. Montgomery already signed initial papers to make Ohio's support official, spokesman Chris Davey said.
Latest update on the tobacco deal from Associated Press
