What can I do? (OR Don't get mad, GET EVEN!)

If you are disgusted and angry about what you have read above regarding tobacco companies and politicians (and you should be), the information in this section will provide links to help you take action.

In a democracy, the only way to improve the society is for citizens to become informed on issues and to take effective political action.

The first thing that you can do is send an e-mail message or a phone call to the tobacco industry telling them your opinion of their behavior. This can be done at these web pages. E-mail

Given the past anti-social behavior of these companies, it is very unlikely that such action will have any real effect. The following steps should be more effective.

• The most important thing that an individual citizen can do to stop the carnage caused by cigarette smoking is to be sure that the politician that he is voting for has not sold out to tobacco interests.

  Unfortunately, 79% of pols elected to the senate or house of representatives have taken money from the tobacco industry.

  The links provided will help you to look up your senator and representative in a data base and see how much money he has taken. It is important to remember that many sources of tobacco money are hidden in contributions from sources not directly associated with tobacco companies.

  The simplest way to get information on your Representative is at Smokescreen Smokescreen A new source of information at Smokescreen makes it simple to get this information. Simply type the following URL http://www.smokescreen.org/cgi-win/smokescr.exe/DISPREPS?state=NY. The last two letters represent the mail code for your state, in this case New York. Change these two letters to access the information on your local representatives to congress.

  Michael Tacelovsky at Smokescreen has upgraded his system so that you can now not only get the voting record of your federal politician, and the amount of money that he has taken from tobacco PACs, but can quickly write him a note, and FAX it to him. This is the internet at it's best!!!

  Another way to access this information is at Coin-op Congress, scroll to BEST CONGRESS MONEY CAN BUY and enter the name of your senator or congressman. Then click on "show me"; on the next page, click on his/her name. Then click on "Agriculture", then "Tobacco" and you will see the total amount of PAC money he/she took from the tobacco industry.

  Mother Jones- Coin Operated Congress

  OR

  Go to Vote Smart and scroll to the link "Congress-Data from Project Vote Smart"and click on it; then click on your state; then click on your senator or congressman. Once you get the page listing the politician you can click on "sources of campaign funding" and read down to agriculture-tobacco. LAST_VISIT="823465925" LAST_MODIFIED="819690488">Vote Smart Web

• The next link will allow citizens who live in the state of California to look up their elected state senators and representatives. I don't have sources for other states.

  California

  Stanton Glantz has shown that the voting behavior of a politician on tobacco legislation is directly correlated with the amount of money he has taken from tobacco companies.

  It is more difficult to find information on voting records with regard to tobacco related legislation. If you know of a good way to do this over the internet, please contact me.

  Try Vote smart, as above, but this time after finding the politician in question click on "voting record sampler" and "smoking".

  You can also click on "performance evaluation by special interest groups". Read down to Health- American Public Health Association. A high rating (100) correlates pretty well with a good record on voting for tobacco control while a low (0) rating usually means a poor record.

  To get more information, one can go to "Thomas"where comprehensive voting information is available.

  THOMAS: Legislative Information on the InternetFinding the information at the THOMAS page is more complex, and I will leave it up to your resourcefullness.

• The final link will allow you to send an e-mail message to your senator or representative. I suggest that you tell him that you are pleased that he did not take tobacco money, or that you are disappointed that he did take such funds, and that you will not vote for him in the next election.

  Congressional Email Directory

  U.S. House Of Representatives - Member Directory

  You can also send e-mail to a politician at his page in Vote Smart.

• If you are in a philanthropic mood and would like to donate money to an organization that has active programs in patient care, cancer research, and training, City of Hope National Medical Center, in Duarte, California, where I practice, is a place where your contribution will make an effective contribution to help combat lung cancer City of Hope

  In Great Britain, an interesting organization that is soliciting contributions for lung cancer research is the Roy Castle Society at the University of Liverpool.

  Perhaps you have been damaged by tobacco products, and are considering a suit against a tobacco company. A number of law firms with experience in this subject can be found at Columbia School of Journalism

• If you have a desire to become more involved in anti-tobacco activism, or help a service organization, the following list will get you in contact with a variety of groups active in this area. I am sure that one of them will be glad of your involvement and assistance.

  Another list of attorneys with skills in tobacco suits can be found at the Nicotine Victims Web Page Attorney Referrals Larry Breed's Tobacco Activism

Action on Smoking and Health ASH

Massachusets Tobacco Control Program Quitnet AIRSPACE Non-Smokers' Rights Society

is a Canadian group with some interesting tactics on striking back at Big Tobacco.

Lung cancer does not only kill hundreds of thousands of people. It is important not to lose track of the fact that it kills individual loved ones. If you would like to have a member of your family remembered as a victim of the tobacco industry, try this link Home Page of Tobacco Victims Association

To encourage support of state based suits against tobacco companies to recover Medicaid funds for money spent treating patients with tobacco related illness try this interesting link from ASH

http://Sue the Bastards

Many organizations and companies that are not obviously connected with the tobacco industry are covert allies. Check out this list of "Collaborators" on the Tobacco Bulletin Board. These organizations could benefit from your input or perhaps your boycott. Collaborators

Another possiblity is responsible investing. If you hold stocks or mutual funds, consider selling those that invest in tobacco companies and related stocks.

To read an interesting review of Republican presidential candidate Senator Robert Dole's track record on tobacco try this link. The Nation

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

Some other sources of information follow: CAMPAIGN CENTRAL FEC INFORMATION AND ELECTION RESULTS

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