To the Editor:
One of us was recently perusing magazines while in the waiting room of a pulmonologist at a university medical center. To his startled surprise, there were several tobacco advertisements in the magazine. A second magazine was quickly scrutinized with the same result.
We find this to be an ironic and totally unacceptable situation. The American Thoracic Society has taken the position of refusing to publish scientific research funded by tobacco companies. This posture, although ethically commendable, has had no visible effect on the profits funneled into the coffers of the tobacco industry. On the other hand, advertisements by the tobacco industry continue to promote smoking. There is evidence that the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between 46 states and the tobacco industry has had negligible effects on tobacco advertising that targets young people (1, 2). Doctors' offices are among the largest subscribers to magazines, which are intended for the use of our patients while they wait to be seen. The vast majority of physicians' waiting rooms in fact display magazines containing tobacco ads (3), a fact of which the busy practitioner may be unaware. Physicians are unwittingly, in effect, subsidizing the tobacco companies by purchasing these magazines containing tobacco advertisements. They also contribute to tobacco advertising by accepting and displaying free magazines that contain cigarette ads.
In our opinion, the American Thoracic Society, the American Lung Association, and the American Medical Association are well positioned to educate physicians about this problem. In addition, these organizations could provide information that identifies which magazines contain tobacco advertisements and which do not. Then individual physicians could decide whether to purchase tobacco-supported magazines for their waiting rooms, or to take a stand and say “No!” to an industry whose products are still responsible for the deaths of more than 400,000 Americans each year (4).
| 1. | King C, Siegel M. The master settlement agreement with the tobacco industry and cigarette advertising in magazines. N Engl J Med 2001;345:504–511. |
| 2. | Chung PJ, Garfield CF, Rathouz PJ, Lauderdale DS, Best D, Lantos J. Youth targeting by tobacco manufacturers since the Master Settlement Agreement. Health Aff 2002;21:254–263. |
| 3. | Aligne CA, Christy C, Jain S. Inadvertent tobacco advertising in physicians' offices [letter]. JAMA 2001;285:43–44. |
| 4. | McGinnis JM, Foege WH. Actual causes of death in the United States. JAMA 1993;270:2207–2212. |
