N.Y. Public Health Law § 1399-nn: Findings and purpose

§ 1399-nn. Findings and purpose. 1. Cigarette smoking presents serious

public health concerns to the state and to the citizens of the state.

The Surgeon General has determined that smoking causes lung cancer,

heart disease and other serious diseases, and that there are hundreds of

thousands of tobacco-related deaths in the United States each year.

These diseases most often do not appear until many years after the

person in question begins smoking.

2. Cigarette smoking also presents serious financial concerns for the

state. Under certain health-care programs, the state may have a legal

obligation to provide medical assistance to eligible persons for health

conditions associated with cigarette smoking, and those persons may have

a legal entitlement to receive such medical assistance.

3. Under these programs, the state pays millions of dollars each year

to provide medical assistance for these persons for health conditions

associated with cigarette smoking.

4. It is the policy of the state that financial burdens imposed on the

state by cigarette smoking be borne by tobacco product manufacturers

rather than by the state to the extent that such manufacturers either

determine to enter into a settlement with the state or are found

culpable by the courts.

5. On November twenty-third, nineteen hundred ninety-eight, leading

United States tobacco product manufacturers entered into a settlement

agreement, entitled the "Master Settlement Agreement," with the state.

The master settlement agreement obligates these manufacturers, in return

for a release of past, present and certain future claims against them as

described therein, to pay substantial sums to the state (tied in part to

their volume of sales); to fund a national foundation devoted to the

interests of public health; and to make substantial changes in their

advertising and marketing practices and corporate culture, with the

intention of reducing underage smoking.

6. It would be contrary to the policy of the state if tobacco product

manufacturers who determine not to enter into such a settlement could

use a resulting cost advantage to derive large, short-term profits in

the years before liability may arise without ensuring that the state

will have an eventual source of recovery from them if they are proven to

have acted culpably. It is thus in the interest of the state to require

that such manufacturers establish a reserve fund to guarantee a source

of compensation and to prevent such manufacturers from deriving large,

short-term profits and then becoming judgment-proof before liability may

arise.