Tobacco Industry Tricks

• • The tobacco industry lied under oath in front of Congress about the addictiveness of their products.
• • In Colorado, the tobacco industry used its influence to prevent the state legislature from passing a law that would have banned smoking in restaurants and bars.

Smoke-Free Laws Save Lives

• • Smoking is a hazard to people’s health. Smoking kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car crashes, illegal drugs, murders and suicides—combined.
  
• • 53,000 people die each year from secondhand smoke in the U.S. Just two hours of exposure in a smoke-filled room is equivalent to smoking 10 cigarettes.
  
• • In Helena, Montana there was a 40 percent drop in heart attacks after the smoke free law went into effect.
  

CoPIRG Accomplishments

• • CoPIRG successfully advocated a 2004 ballot measure that increased the sales tax on tobacco products and uses that revenue to fund health care programs.
• • CoPIRG won new identity theft protections. The single greatest protection from identity theft is a consumer’s ability to freeze access to a credit report, a protection we recently won at the State House.